The project’s first phase, which includes major earthwork and construction of a milking barn with a modern rotary parlor, has been completed and the next phase of construction (maternity and commodity barns and classrooms) is underway. In early May, U of I led a tour of lawmakers, local officials and members of the state’s Permanent Building Fund Advisory Council to showcase the return on the considerable investment they’ve made in CAFE.

The first phase of construction of the University of Idaho-led Idaho Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (Idaho CAFE) – comprising rough grading of open-lot corrals and dairy lagoons and construction of a 60-cow rotary milking parlor – is on pace to be completed by late September or early October.

Construction crews are wrapping up a monumental excavation project to lay the groundwork for what will be the nation’s largest research dairy, led by the University of Idaho and based in Idaho’s Magic Valley.

Idaho agriculture overcame a struggling dairy market to record a second consecutive year of stellar cash receipts in 2023, propelled by record values of four of the state’s major crops, according to a new University of Idaho economic report.

A multiyear study involving University of Idaho researchers has found that allowing late-fall and winter grazing on rangeland heavily infested with invasive medusahead grass could provide extra forage for cattlemen while reducing wildfire fuel.

UI plant virologist Alexander Karasev took the alfalfa samples in 2020 while collecting symptomatic foliage in a field at the future site of Idaho CAFE near Rupert. Karasev named the newly discovered disease Snake River virus, after the Snake River Valley in which the field is located.

Actual farmers don’t plant lunar wheat, and they’ll never encounter fan bugs or bog beetles when they scout their fields. Despite the fictitious details, anyone who plays the new agricultural-themed board game Pest Friends can count on learning real lessons in integrated pest management.