Bousquet, who is the AFAN director of livestock development, grew up on a diversified farming operation near South Sioux City, where his family milked cows, raised cow calf pairs, farmed and grew corn, soybeans and alfalfa, as well as operated an over-the-road trucking company. Bousquet said he might be a little biased toward dairy.
“This sector has the most opportunity for growth in all of livestock in my opinion,” Bousquet said.
AFAN, which is the Alliance for the Future of Agriculture in Nebraska, serves as a resource for farmers and ranchers who wish to expand or move their livestock operations in Nebraska. Bousquet also works throughout the state, telling agriculture’s story at speaking engagements and for education projects.
Bousquet was one of the featured speakers a week ago at the annual Northeast Nebraska Ag Banquet at the Madison County Fairgrounds in Madison.
One of the reasons Bousquet sees opportunity for dairies is because of demand for milk, including a dairy processing plant in Norfolk.
Dairy has been a growth opportunity in Nebraska for years. One of the things that occurs is before milk processing plants come to the state, they want to make sure they will have an ample supply of milk, Bousquet said.
Dairy production in Nebraska has followed the national trend of fewer dairies with more cows for decades.
Nebraska produces more than 4 million pounds of milk daily. Right now, Milk Specialties in Norfolk uses 600,000 pounds of milk every day and would like to increase capacity to use about 2 million pounds each day, Bousquet said.
That expansion creates more competition for milk for Nebraska producers, so there’s opportunity for more milk production.
AFAN also is working with four other dairy processing plants that are considering locating in Nebraska. If the state can land at least a few of those, there will be even more opportunities for milk production.
As he travels around, Bousquet said he hears from others who are appreciative of the support given to dairy and livestock in Nebraska. That doesn’t happen every place.
“There’s a lot of places in this country where people don’t support agriculture,” Bousquet said. “Take a trip to California or Oregon or Washington and you’ll see it firsthand.”
Bousquet recently saw a dairy farmer in California who was having difficulty getting enough water for his cows to drink. There are also more regulations there and a moratorium on ag wells, he said.
“Things are getting much more difficult not just in the dairy world, but for the livestock producer,” he said.
Legal notice about Intellectual Property in digital contents. All information contained in these pages that is NOT owned by eDairy News and is NOT considered “public domain” by legal regulations, are registered trademarks of their respective owners and recognized by our company as such. The publication on the eDairy News website is made for the purpose of gathering information, respecting the rules contained in the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works; in Law 11.723 and other applicable rules. Any claim arising from the information contained in the eDairy News website shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the Ordinary Courts of the First Judicial District of the Province of Córdoba, Argentina, with seat in the City of Córdoba, excluding any other jurisdiction, including the Federal.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
eDairy News Spanish
eDairy News PORTUGUESE
The most visited dairy news website in the world.
