Dairy Sector Helps Drive Indiana Economy – Inside INdiana Business

Steve Obert is a fifth technology farmer in Gibson County the place the household operates Obert Legacy Dairy. When he’s not tending to the 1,200-cow herd, the veteran dairy operator is main efforts to advertise and help Indiana’s 1,200 dairy farms. In Might 2021, Obert took over as govt director of Indiana Dairy Producers, an advocacy group representing Hoosier dairy farmers.

In an interview with Inside INdiana Enterprise, Obert stated Indiana residents who will not be linked to agriculture might not perceive its worth as an financial engine.

“I feel agriculture and particularly, dairy is somewhat bit ignored in relation to the worth of making financial exercise in our communities,” stated Obert. “Dairy farms are situated in essentially the most rural areas of Indiana. For lots of them, that’s the financial engine of a group.”

Based on the Indiana State Division of Agriculture, dairy is the fifth largest commodity in Indiana, totaling $750 million in gross sales, or about seven % of complete agricultural product gross sales. Compared, corn represents 31% of the worth of gross sales from Indiana farmers.

“Dairy households are an amazing asset to our rural Indiana communities,” stated Obert.

Obert took half in a tour earlier this week to look at Indiana’s dairy trade by three dairy-related operations in Elkhart County, together with two dairy farms and a milk processor.

The tour, hosted by the Indiana State Division of Agriculture and American Dairy Affiliation Indiana, was organized to permit state lawmakers, financial growth officers and different stakeholders to look at what function the Indiana dairy sector performs within the state.

“We’ve acquired legislators which have been on the journey right now. That helps them higher perceive the trade that’s inside their districts,” stated Indiana State Division of Agriculture Director Bruce Kettler.

In 2015, the ISDA commissioned a examine to look at Indiana’s dairy trade. In December 2020, the company launched an up to date model. Indiana Dairy Technique 2.0 took into consideration how the COVID pandemic dramatically impacted the trade as a complete. As colleges and eating places closed, demand for fluid milk and different dairy merchandise took a dramatic hit.

“The extent of those disruptions and the length of their impacts are as unknown and tough to precisely predict because the long-term influence of the COVID virus itself however are vital to acknowledge within the context of any forward-looking strategic plan for the state’s trade,” acknowledged the chief abstract. “Producers and processors have been confronted with having to handle sudden surpluses and extra advertising prices attributable to the disruption to regular advertising channels.”

Kettler says the technique revealed the necessity for Indiana’s dairy farmers to look at methods to diversify their operations.

“We checked out some information that stated that issues like including worth to take advantage of merchandise within the state of Indiana can be helpful. In fact, there’s varied methods to try this, together with on farm processing, and that form of grew to become evident in that data that we pulled out for the technique,” stated Kettler.

There are 900 licensed dairy farms in Indiana, ranging in herd dimension and scope operations. The state ranks quantity 15 when it comes to the quantity of milk produced.

“We’re working to make Indiana essentially the most fascinating state by which to provide milk,” stated Obert. “It’s vital to acknowledge that I didn’t say that we essentially need to be the biggest dairy property, we need to be essentially the most fascinating.”

Obert says to succeed in that objective requires cooperation inside state authorities, together with elected officers and regulatory companies. Click on right here to view the Indiana Dairy Technique 2.0.