As an individual farm that relies largely on the sugarbeet crop, Garner recognizes the need to meet current and future challenges with efficiency, water management and “loosening the reins” to involve the younger generation.

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 Southern Idaho Livestock Hall of Fame recognizes the men and women who have made positive impacts on the livestock industry. The newest inductees were honored on April 8 during the organization’s 64th annual banquet in Twin Falls.

Pete Jones is the project manager for University of Idaho’s Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (Idaho CAFE) currently under construction in Rupert. Ag Proud – Idaho’s Cassidy Woolsey caught up with Jones to learn more about what is soon-to-be the nation's largest research dairy, located right here in Idaho.

Winter work days are much better for dairyman Cameron Turner this year. This is the second winter he and his family’s dairy will be milking cows with robots in an enclosed barn. Their new dairy was finished in the fall of 2023.

How do we preserve the individual farm legacy while preparing the farm for future generations? It was this question that brought 10 potato farmers together in the late ’70s and early ’80s to attempt to operate a fresh-pack potato shed together.

In seven years, organic matter content in Matthews’ fields has gained a point and a half, and the curve is getting steeper now. “So it’s not taking us decades to make that organic matter change,” he says. “It can happen faster than people think. I mean, we’re farming in a desert, after all … but we’ve changed the soil. And you can change the soil, even in a desert.”

Dairyman Jesus Hurtado’s fate was intertwined with the late John Reitsma and his dairies for nearly three decades. Now Hurtado and John’s son Dirk Reitsma and their dairy futures are connected again through co-investment in a new milk plant in Burley, Idaho.

Southern Idaho Livestock Hall of Fame recognizes the men and women who have made positive impacts on the livestock industry. The newest inductees were honored on April 9 during the organization’s 63rd annual banquet in Twin Falls.