Land of milk and foreclosures

Anyone who has driven through Chino on a regular basis has probably caught a whiff of the Inland Empire's dairy lands. It seemed until recently that all those dairy farms, and aroma, would soon fade into memory as feed lots and barns made way for condos and strip malls. Now it looks like everyone will have to hold their breath a little longer.

With the real estate boom over and land prices falling, the remaining dairy farmers have less financial incentive to sell out and move on, according to the Press-Enterprise of Riverside. The number of dairies in the Chino basin has dwindled from more than 400 during the 1980s to about 130 today. It will be at least another decade before the last of those dairies, and their more than 100,000 cows, move out.

--Jesus Sanchez

Photo: Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times