Idaho agriculture cash receipts hit record high

2014 was another record year for farmers and ranchers in Idaho.

Agricultural economists said cash receipts from milk, crop and livestock sales almost reached $10 billion, an increase of 16 percent over 2013. This makes Idaho the third largest agricultural state in the western United States, just behind California and Washington.

Idaho still ranks No. 1 for potato production throughout the U.S. with projected cash receipts of $885 million. Wheat and hay also contributed to record revenue projections at over $600 million each.

University of Idaho agriculture economist Paul Patterson said although figures show a steady growth trend, there are several factors to be considered.

“In 2014 we set some new records, which I think a lot of people seem to focus on, thinking its all great, and it is,” said Patterson. “We work in global markets in this state and a lot of our commodities are competitive and a lot of them end up being exported, but you can’t just look at what’s happened here locally in terms of supply and demand, you have to look at the global context.”

Patterson said a lot of cash receipt records figured in this year’s financial projection won’t reflect crops impacted by floodwaters and unseasonable rain during the summer.

“Two crop years get incorporated within our estimates for 2014 so that included some of the crop from 2013, so the rains that we had in August that were pretty devastating to the barley and wheat industries won’t show up until we release estimates for 2015,” he said.

Patterson said the most accurate cash receipt reflected in the report was revenue from milk production. Milk generated $3.25 billion in cash receipts. Idaho now ranks third in the nation for milk production.

“2009 was a disastrous year for the dairy industry and they needed a year like this to try to get healed up,” said Patterson “This last year, every month dairy prices were above average and some months significantly above.”