Extension launches new dairy curriculum for Idaho educators

MOSCOW, Idaho — Dairy helps drive Idaho’s agricultural economy but is often overshadowed by the state’s famous potatoes.

University of Idaho Extension recently published a new curriculum for third- through sixth-grade students, seeking to elevate Idaho’s dairy industry while teaching children how milk and dairy products are produced.

Matt Fisher, a University of Idaho area Extension educator in 4‑H, collaborated with Dairy West on Dairy in a Box, a kit containing flashcards, posters, storybooks, lesson plans, quizzes and other dairy-centric related materials and activities. The lessons align with Idaho content standards for language arts, math, social studies and science and include notes to help teachers adjust exercises for different grade levels.

Dairy in a Box kits can be purchased online through UI Extension publications for $29 each, plus shipping. Extension initially printed 75 kits to be sold, and Fisher plans to use grant funding to print 50 additional kits, some of which will be given away.

Idaho ranks third nationally in milk production, with milk sales generating an estimated $3.85 billion in revenue in 2025, according to a report by UI Extension agricultural economists.

“We have more cows in Idaho than people, and a lot of them are dairy cows,” Fisher said. “My job was to bring this commodity in Idaho to the attention of youth and let them know that we’re more than just potatoes.”

Dairy in a Box contains six lessons that help students:

• Identify dairy cow breeds using flashcards.
• Explore how cows turn plants fueled by sunlight into milk and meat and how manure helps more plants grow.
• Learn how cows eat agricultural byproducts such as orange pulp, almond husks, cottonseed and potato peels.
• Follow milk and dairy products from farms to store shelves.
• Tour Idaho and Utah dairies through a Dairy West video.
• Learn about butter production and make butter by shaking cream.

Fisher, a former elementary school teacher, has been working to develop school curriculum focused on some of Idaho’s major agricultural commodities, including potatoes, dairy, sugarbeets and wheat. He’s received more than $10,000 toward the effort from a five-year, $750,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture grant Extension received in 2023.

In fall 2025, Fisher and Siew Guan Lee, an Extension educator in family and consumer sciences, released the first crop curriculum, called ePotato, which is available as a free download. EPotato has been downloaded by teachers, home-schooling groups, 4‑H groups, parents and others throughout Idaho, as well as in Illinois, Minnesota, Canada and even by a United Nations group in Myanmar.

A third lesson on Idaho’s sugarbeet industry, also developed by Fisher and Lee, has undergone vetting through a peer-review process and awaits publication.

“We’re an agricultural state, and more and more people are removed from farms and their food. It’s good to educate these children about what Idaho is about and where their food comes from,” Fisher said. “A kid can look out of a car window and say, ‘Hey, I know that crop,’ or ‘That’s a Holstein cow producing milk,’ instead of just a black and white cow.”

Media contact

Matt Fisher
Area Extension educator in 4-H
208-736-3627
mattfisher@uidaho.edu