California Business Minute™

Hi, I am Tim Johnson and welcome to the California Business Minute

The ‘Wow of the Cow,’ summarizes the end result of a study of the economic impact
of the California dairy business, a study done by the California Milk Advisory
Board that shows that California dairy farms contributed $63 billion to the state's
economy in 2008.

California is the No. 1 dairy state in the nation. The report identifies that
California produces 21 percent of the milk in the country.

And according to the study, the economic impact is more than the wine industry or
the movie and television industries on the state said Stan Andre, chief executive
officer of the California Milk Advisory Board.

California dairies themselves produced $9.9 billion worth of milk in 2008. Add the
supply chain that supports dairies, such as equipment suppliers, contractors, feed
suppliers and growers and others to that figure, and the total impact is $63 billion.
The board figures the basic worth is multiplied by 6.4 to show the true impact of
the industry.

The Milk Advisory Board study also illustrates how much money a typical dairy cow
produced in 2008.

Apparently, one milking cow generated $34,165 of economic activity, and four dairy
cows equaled one job in the industry. And 10 on-the-farm jobs led to 222 beyond-the-farm
jobs. In 2008, there were about 1.8 million milking cows in the state, according to
the report and the average dairy milked about 1,000 cows.

A total of about 35,000 people are directly employed by dairies in the state, which
totaled about 1,900 in California in 2008. The study illustrates the rest of the
supply chain provides another 408,500 jobs. According to the study, about 3 percent
of the jobs in the state are directly related to the dairy business and the household
earnings that came from dairies in 2008 were more than $12 billion.

"The good thing about these dollars and jobs is they stay local," said Stan Andre
executive director of the Board. "When a person buys a computer, that computer may
have been made in China. But the dairy impact is local, because the suppliers are
local."

However, officials in the industry believe that despite the troubles that have hit
dairy farmers this year, the dairy industry will continue to thrive in the state.
"The demand for milk products globally is growing and growing," Andre said. "Milk
is not only a good nutritional product -- it does a lot for the economy."

I am Tim Johnson and this has been the California Business Minute.