The Dairy Group Eight Students Take A 40-Hour Course In Oregon, Hoping To Milk Cows For All They’re Worth

Frustrated by a shortage of trained hands, southern Idaho and eastern Oregon dairy farmers have enlisted Treasure Valley Community College to start a school for milkers.

The 40-hour course at the Ontario, Ore., junior college is designed to help job seekers gain basic work skills.

The course’s first eight students paid $100 each to learn everything from cow psychology and cattle health and nutrition to how to apply for a milker’s job.

Classes are being held on the school’s campus, and hands-on training is provided at local dairies.

Rapid growth in the dairy industry across southern Idaho and into Oregon has outpaced the number of trained hands.

But help-wanted ads in local newspapers and listings with employment offices have attracted few experienced applicants, Eastway Dairy owner Larry White said.

“We felt there was a need for a pool of trained milkers,” White said. “It takes a while to train a milker, let alone find one.”

Milking cows on a modern dairy usually means working a 12-to 14-hour day, but it pays better than the average farm job.

“There are some dairies we service here in the valley where milkers will get paid $2,000 a month and a house to live in,” said Jerry Korn, owner of Dairy Health Inc. in Nampa.

With some large dairies issuing bonuses on the basis of average daily milk production, quality, workers can earn up to $28,000 a year, Korn said.

Korn, who is also an equipment instructor for the school, said that despite advances in automation, modern dairy work is still physically demanding.

“You have to have the stamina, the capabilities to handle the job,” Korn said. “You have to be on the ball and attentive.”

“Dairies are becoming more sophisticated. Twenty years ago cows were giving 30 pounds of milk a day. Now it’s not uncommon for some cows to give 70 to 90 pounds per day. You have to have everything clicking, everything has to run smooth,” Korn said.

For the students, several hope to parlay the training they get into a job and eventually a farm operation of their own someday.

“I’ve always had an interest in working with cattle,” said Lee Halsell, who works part-time as a security guard at the school. “I hope someday to have my own ranch.”

And Bill Condie lives on a small farm near Fruitland and enrolled so he could someday expand into the dairy business.