06/09/05 Problems come with dairy expansion

Now the nation's fifth largest Idaho's dairy industry continues to expand. But this growth does have some problems, odor being one. Marv Patten of the Idaho Department of Agriculture had 26 hundred dairy odor complaints to investigate in the two years prior to enactment of a new state law. PATTEN "It's not a quick fix. It's not an inexpensive fix for the industry but through our particular processes and rolling up our sleeves and working with the industry we were able to reduce the number of complaints that we had substantially." By 2004 the number of dairy odor complaints dropped to 565. Jim Stewart is one of many dairymen who are actively seeking solutions to problems like odor. STEWART "When dairies are going in now they're addressing all those concerns and I think there is going to be technology developed that is going to greatly solve a lot of the concerns of the citizens of Idaho." Some of that technology is already here. One Idaho company's future rides on its plan to turn a dairy zone into a natural gas field. That story on next week on Dairy Month. Voice of Idaho agriculture Bill Scott