(Radio Iowa0 – Iowa is known as a global leader in producing things like corn, hogs, wind power and ethanol, but the state’s dairy industry is also being celebrated this month. Mariah Busta of Decorah is the executive director of the Iowa State Dairy Association. “Iowa actually ranks number 11 in dairy production, but it is the fifth-largest agriculture sector in Iowa,” Busta says. “Iowa is home to about 750 dairy farms and they’re sprinkled throughout the state, but a lot of them land in eastern Iowa and actually up in the northwest corner of Iowa.”

Busta commends the efforts of the state’s dairy producers for persevering over the decades.  “We’re losing the number of dairy farms in the state,” Busta says. “The number has been declining over the years, but the number of cows has still stayed steady, if not grown a little bit, which is nice. Milk production continues to increase as well.”

The association says Iowa has about 220-thousand dairy cows. A recent study of the economic impact of Iowa’s dairy industry reports a per-cow per-year impact of more than 25-thousand dollars, giving Iowa’s dairy industry an economic impact of more than five-billion dollars per year.