06/29/05 XP Dairy, 50 plus years and still going

Dana and Vicky Purdy and their daughters Rhiannon and Holly operate a dairy near Boise. Like the others in Idaho, it's a family owned farm but it's not of the scale of most of this state's dairies. DANA "This is the XP Dairy. My parents, my mom and dad, Clarence and Carol Purdy started this dairy back in the early 50's. VICKY "We milk 80 Holsteins. We farm 129 acres. We raise all our own replacements, we have a closed herd. We raise all our own feed, makes it really nice." DANA-"We pride ourselves in trying to keep our cows as clean as they can. In my opinion, a happy cow, a clean cow gives more milk than one that's pushed with a lot of bst and a lot of shots and stuff." VICKY -"I have my Sunday morning prayers with the cows in the barn pretty much. We work seven days a week, 24/7, 365 days a year." DANA-"Some people ask you if it's boring. Well there's absolutely nothing boring about it but the every-dayness of it does kind of wear you down. It's been a good life!" Tomorrow, the Purdy's daughters have their say about growing up on a dairy farm. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott