June 7, 2004

Hawaii Milk Production Down

Hawaii's dairy cows produced 7.2 million pounds of milk in April, compared to 8.1 million pounds in April 2003 and 7.7 million pounds in March 2004.

The cow inventory, both dry and in milk, numbered 6,400 head, unchanged from April 2003 and March 2004. The average output per cow in April was 1,125 pounds, 140 pounds less than the same month last year and 80 pounds below the previous month. Production for the first four months of this year was 9 percent below the comparable period in 2003 and totaling 29.1 million pounds.

Milk production in the 20 major dairy states in April totaled 12.6 billion pounds, down 0.9 percent from April 2003. March revised production, at 12.8 billion pounds, was down 1.7 percent from March 2003. The March revision represented an increase of 0.2 percent or 22 million pounds from last month's preliminary production estimate.