Attention all folks living in Iowa! Did you use milk on your cereal, cheese on your salad, or yogurt as a snack today? Then, the Iowa State Dairy Association (ISDA) invites you to celebrate Iowa’s dairy industry as part of June Dairy Month! Did you know that Iowa is home to nearly 2,000 dairy farms and more than 216,000 dairy cows? According to the USDA, each Iowa dairy cow produces nearly 20,000 pounds of nutritious, high quality milk per year and in 2008, Iowa milk production totaled 4.3 billion pounds.

“June Dairy Month is a great time to recognize all that Iowa’s dairy farmers do for you,” says Wayne Dykshorn, ISDA president. “The dairy industry is essential to Iowans in many ways. Consuming dairy products is important for people of all ages in order to maintain good health and much of the dairy products we Iowans consume every day come from Iowa’s own dairies.

According to the USDA, Iowa’s dairy industry provides approximately 26,000 jobs; which includes not only jobs on dairy farms and in dairy processing plants but many other services that aid the dairy industry. More than $1.5 billion is contributed annually to Iowa’s economy by the dairy industry.