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Nebraska continues push for dairy growth

Nebraska officials are attending this week’s World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin, promoting the advantages of locating dairies in Nebraska.

Willow Holoubek with A-FAN, the Alliance for the Future of Agriculture in Nebraska, says they emphasize Nebraska’s water resources and reliable supply of feedstuffs—and that it’s also a great place to live and work.

“Nebraska is the number one irrigated state so we know that we have a sustainable feed supply no matter what the weather does,” says Holoubek. “So we talk a lot about our water and we also talk about our quality of life here in Nebraska.”

Much of the growth in the dairy industry is occurring in the so-called “I-29 Corridor”, which includes eastern Nebraska.  But Holoubek says they’re also promoting central and western areas of the state.

“They both have wonderful feedstocks.  We realize we will have to work with marketing in those areas,  but it’s a great place to milk cows,” she says. “So we have three different regions with three sets of strategy plans to move forward with increasing the herd in Nebraska.”

Holoubek says the goal is to add 30,000 dairy cows in the state in the next five years.  The current number is 54,000.  She says that number will increase by 5,000 in 2014, helped by the addition of a 4,000 cow dairy near Emerson in northeast Nebraska.

AUDIO: Willow Holoubek (3:42 MP3)

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