A general description of the Iowa New Farms project was presented in A.S. Leaflet R 2095 in the Animal Industry Report 2006. This is an update of the project.

Six dairy farm families have immigrated or moved from other states to Iowa under the New Farms Project. There is one additional dairy that has established an Iowa base, but has done so under an E-2 Visa. All of the others are utilizing the EB-5 Visa and have located in one of the 77 Iowa counties designated by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service.

The economic impact of these new dairies is very significant. A Minnesota source estimates total economic impact of a dairy to be $15,000 per cow. That would give an economic impact of $15,000,000 on Iowa’s economy from the first 4 immigrant dairy farm families to establish in Iowa.