AMES, Iowa — A new study released by Iowa State University’s (ISU) Department of Animal Science and ISU’s Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) shows an excellent potential for growth in the state’s animal food systems, as well as for increased job opportunities and higher cash receipts for the state’s economy.

“Development through animal agriculture is a logical and exciting avenue to grow Iowa’s rural economies,” said Wendy Wintersteen, dean of ISU’s College of Agriculture. “Our animal agriculture industry is favorably located geographically, in an area of competitive advantage for feed ingredients and has cropping systems that are compatible for ma-nure utilization.”

With about 40 industry representatives participating in the study, writing for six livestock categories - beef, dairy, equine, pork, poultry and sheep/goats, ISU’s Department of Animal Science conducted a year-long visioning exercise to evaluate the economic impact that animal agriculture has had on Iowa’s small-town communities.

“Rural Iowa offers a high quality of life but is in dire need of economic development. Fertile soil and a climate conducive to growing things combine to make agriculture a vital part of the state’s economy,” the report said.

“Iowa’s agricultural land base makes an efficient, integrated system of crops and livestock possible. The state is in an excellent position to increase its domestic and global market share for all types of agricultural products.”

Entitled “A Vision for Iowa Animal Agriculture,” the report revealed that Iowa has the land resources to increase both livestock and poultry production.

“Think about a diversified crop-livestock farm that feeds all the crops grown on the farm and sells only livestock or poultry products,” said Maynard Hogberg, department chair and ISU professor of animal science.

“More labor is needed to care for the animals and value is added to the crops that are converted to higher value animal proteins.

“The farm would purchase less commercial fertilizer because the manure nutrients would meet most of the crop needs,” he said.

As the nation’s leading hog producer, Iowa currently has about 26 percent of the nation’s hogs and 6 percent of fed cattle inventories. “Clearly, Iowa has the land resources to expand animal agriculture,” Hogberg added. “Issues of concentration and environmental impacts exist, and those will continue to be addressed.”

According to the report, Iowa’s beef industry marketed 1.38 million fed cattle in 2005 and had 1.05 million beef cows at the start of 2006. In part due to the growing supply of coproducts from ethanol production, fed cattle marketings have the potential to increase 50 percent by 2016.

In 2006, Iowa’s dairy cows produced 3.79 billion pounds of milk. By 2016, it’s estimated that could increase to 5.64 billion pounds, a 50 percent increase in milk production through increased productivity and cow numbers.

Released Nov. 20, the report also suggested a 15 percent increase in Iowa’s swine breeding herd and a 10 percent increase in finishing pigs; a 37 percent increase in laying hens; a 40 percent increase in turkeys; a 20 percent increase in horses; a 160 percent increase in goats; and the addition of 50,000 ewes to the state’s sheep flocks.

In addition, a recent CARD analysis evaluated the number of hog or cattle finishing spaces needed to fertilize crops per section of cropland.

Using sound agronomic practices and environmental regulations, ISU researchers determined that if Iowa’s 36,000 sections of cropland were planted in a corn-corn-soybean rotation under a phosphorus standard, it would take all the hogs and 80 percent of the fed cattle in the U.S. to generate adequate nutrients for the crops.

As a result, the effect on jobs and economic activity if Iowa were to increase its animal agriculture industry to these levels would translate into greater demand, said John Lawrence, ISU professor of economics and director of the Iowa Beef Center.

“The growth of Iowa’s animal agriculture offers traditional partners an increased demand for Iowa grains, supplies, capital, energy, labor and consumables. It also has the potential to add jobs in other areas,” he said.

“Nearly 10,000 new jobs, both direct and indirect, would be created if the growth projections outlined in this report are reached. Plus, cash receipts would be $9.705 billion and total economic activity would be $21.2 billion,” he added.

Lawrence, who studied the growth potential for the animal species, said Iowa would also exceed last year’s cash receipt levels. “Cash receipts from animal agriculture in 2005 were nearly $7.9 billion in Iowa and represented 53 percent of all agriculture receipts,” he said. “The targeted growth outlined in this report would lead to an increase of $2 billion in cash receipts from animal agriculture over the next decade.”

In the end, staying competitive in the global market would be essential if Iowa’s industry is to grow, ISU researchers concluded.

“Iowa’s animal agriculture has a long history of being a low-cost producer of high-quality products,” Lawrence said. “The animal industries must focus on profitability for the producer in the future if Iowa is to remain competitive globally, expand its industry and garner a larger percentage of the U.S. market.”

This farm news was published in the Nov. 29, 2006 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.