January 19, 2005

US States See December Milk Output up 1%

Milk production in the 20 major states in the US during December totaled 12.4 billion pounds, up 1.0% from December 2003, according to the USDA.

November revised production, at 11.9 billion pounds, was up 1.2% from November 2003. This revision represented an increase of 5 million pounds from last month's preliminary production estimate.

Production per cow in the 20 major states averaged 1,602 pounds for December, 6 pounds above December 2003.

The number of milk cows on farms in the 20 major states was 7.76 million head, 47,000 head more than December 2003, but 4,000 head less than November 2004.