Twin Falls, Idaho, USA
July 20, 2012

Idaho’s Magic Valley agribusinesses generate directly or indirectly two of every three dollars of sales in the six-county area’s economy, according to an analysis by University of Idaho Extension.

Agribusiness yields 60 percent of the exports or “new money” that flows into the economy of south central Idaho’s Magic Valley, Twin Falls, Jerome, Gooding, Lincoln, Minidoka and Cassia counties based on 2010 numbers.

Idaho’s dairy processing industry accounts for a fifth of all sales and a seventh of Magic Valley jobs. A third of all jobs are created by agricultural exports, which include milk, cheese, potatoes fresh and processed, sugar, fish and other products that are sold outside the six counties.

“Agriculture is Idaho’s biggest business and the Magic Valley is the epicenter of agriculture in Idaho,” said John Hammel, dean of the University of Idaho’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. “This is why the college’s missions of research, extension and education are vital to the Magic Valley and the state.”

University of Idaho President M. Duane Nellis, Hammel and other college deans and officials participated in the Twilight Tour at the Kimberly Research and Extension Center July 18. The center is overseen by the Idaho Agricultural Experiment Station, which is celebrating its 120th anniversary this year.

The analysis was prepared by Steve Hines, University of Idaho Extension Jerome County crops educator at Twin Falls; Joel Packham, Cassia County Extension crops and agricultural business management educator at Burley; and Garth Taylor, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences regional economic analyst at Moscow.

Hines and Packham teamed up on the effort to revive a similar analysis published a dozen years ago with support of the counties in an effort to better understand the economic impact of agriculture. The Middle Snake River Resource Commission supported by the counties needed an update, Hines said.

“Things have changed a lot in the last 12 years,” Hines said. “We wanted some up-to-date numbers to tell what’s going on with agriculture. The amount of money that’s involved and that moves through the economy is a lot bigger. It just dramatically increased in some cases, some by more than 100 percent.”

Magic Valley agriculture accounts for half of Idaho’s total cash receipts, which totaled an estimated $5.8 billion in 2010 and $7.4 billion in 2011.

“One of every three jobs and two of every three dollars of sales in the Magic Valley are directly or indirectly created by agriculture,” said Garth Taylor, the Moscow-based regional economist.

Magic Valley farm gate receipts make up half of Idaho’s total, productivity that owes much to the nearly 1 million acres of harvested cropland, virtually all of which (97 percent) is irrigated.

The efficiency of modern agriculture means fewer jobs are actually on the farm, but the total impact from processing plants is much larger. In the Magic Valley, 10,000 or 11 percent of jobs are on the farm, but direct and indirect ag-related jobs are almost 33,000 or 37 percent of the region’s job total.

Milk is the region’s largest agribusiness, contributing half of exports -- more than $4.1 billion in sales -- and reflecting Idaho’s rank as the nation’s No. 3 milk producer and No. 4 in number of milk cows.

The region also makes Idaho No. 1 nationally by producing three-quarters of the food-sized rainbow trout consumed in the U.S.

The farm itself is the middle link in region’s agribusiness complex, the analysis notes. Farmers buy supplies and service from local businesses and sell products to food processors who make cheese, French fries, trout fillets and other foods.
 

Website: http://www.uidaho.edu

Published: July 20, 2012