Download: The 2026 Texas Dairy Industry Economic Impact Report
Economic impact reports get quoted in hearings, loan meetings and local news, often without anyone asking how the number was made. This guide explains the method and where the real figures live, because we are not hosting a file here.
What does an economic impact report actually measure?
An economic impact report tries to answer one question: how much economic activity in a region traces back to one industry? For Texas dairy, that means milk checks, feed purchases, veterinary bills, trucking, processing payrolls and the spending of everyone on those payrolls. The headline figure is as reported by whoever produced it, so check it at the named source before you repeat it.
This page is an explainer, not a download. We do not host a report file, and you should be wary of any site that claims to hand you the definitive one. The real reports come from agencies, universities and industry groups, and the place to start is the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension economics staff or the dairy promotion group Dairy MAX.
How do direct, indirect and induced effects differ?
Direct effects are the dairy farm itself: jobs on the dairy, milk sales, wages. Indirect effects are the businesses that supply the dairy, such as feed mills, equipment dealers, vets and haulers. Induced effects are what happens when workers at all of those businesses spend their paychecks at the grocery store, the diner and the school fundraiser.
A multiplier ties these together. If a study says one dollar of dairy output supports some larger amount of total activity, the multiplier is the ratio. Multipliers vary by region and model, so a number from the Panhandle should not be assumed to fit Erath County without checking.
- Direct: milk sales, farm payroll
- Indirect: feed, vets, trucking, processing inputs
- Induced: household spending by people in the chain
Why does a Stephenville dairy see the story differently?
Stephenville sits in the Cross Timbers and Erath County has long been tied to dairy. A local feed dealer and a milk hauler may feel the industry in daily orders long before any report arrives. That lived experience is useful, but it is one data point, and a statewide study blends very different operations, from large Panhandle herds to smaller Central Texas ones.
When you read a statewide figure, ask what share of it comes from farms and what share from processing and distribution. The split changes how a farmer should use the number in a conversation with a county commissioner or a lender.
Which official data should sit under any impact number?
Good reports lean on public data. Farm counts and sales come from USDA NASS and the Census of Agriculture. Wages and employment come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. State tax and business activity data are tracked by the Texas Comptroller. Milk prices and volumes show up in USDA Dairy Market News.
If a report cannot tell you which of these it used, or what year the underlying data came from, treat its totals as soft. Ask for the methodology section before the summary.
How do you build your own impact estimate?
You can sketch a rough local picture without a consultant. Start with the number of dairies and cows in your county from public data, then list the dairy-dependent businesses you actually deal with. Add payroll where you know it, and note what you cannot verify.
For a more careful version, ask an extension economist to run a standard input-output model. The farm money basics guide helps you frame the cash flow side, and this dairy herd care guide shows the operating costs that sit behind the milk check.
- Pull county dairy counts from public data
- List local suppliers and service providers
- Record payroll only where you can document it
- Ask an economist to apply a proper multiplier
How should you quote a figure without overselling it?
Say who produced the number, what it covers and what year its data came from, then point listeners to the source. Over at farm.FM they cover dairy economics with a lighter touch, and you can find a farm.FM story on dairy economics that shows how a number looks in everyday terms.
Avoid rounding up, and avoid mixing numbers from different studies. A figure for jobs supported and a figure for jobs directly employed are not the same thing, and mixing them is the quickest way to lose a skeptical audience. For a wider view of the sector, the dairy section at farm.FM and the agribusiness stories are good companions.
Sources and further reading
- Texas A&M AgriLife Extension: Texas extension service
- Dairy MAX: dairy promotion in the Southwest
- USDA NASS: agricultural statistics and surveys
- Bureau of Labor Statistics: labor and price data
- Texas Comptroller: state tax and economic data
- USDA Dairy Market News: weekly dairy price reports
Ask locally: Ask an agricultural economist at your regional Texas A&M AgriLife Extension office how impact models are set up.