December 10, 2004

Hawaii Sees Fall in Milk Production

With one of Oahu's three dairy farms having closed over the summer, Hawaii dairy production is down substantially now from year-before levels and is now running below 6 million pounds a month.

In October, Hawaii's dairy cows produced 5.7 million pounds of milk, up slightly from the month before, but well down from 7 million pounds for October last year.

Both the dry and milk cow inventory numbered 5,800 head, down 800 from the same time last year and 100 lower than the previous month. The average output per cow in October was 985 pounds, 75 pounds below the same month last year but 35 pounds above the previous month.

Production for the first 10 months of this year totaled 68.8 million pounds, 12 percent below the same period in 2003.

National milk production in October topped 12.2 billion pounds, up 1.3 percent from October 2003.