August 20, 2010

US milk production goes up

Milk production figures for July were higher across the entire US except only four states.

The USDA has announced that total output for the 23 major dairy states rose by 3% from 2009 to 15.3 billion pounds. That figure was also higher than June's production of 15.2 billion.

Wisconsin dairy farmers produced 2.26 billion pounds of milk in July, up 2.2% above last year, and higher than June's 2.24 billion pounds. California continues to have the highest total production with about 3.4 billion pounds. Arizona had the highest percent-increase for the month as that state putout 335 million pounds, up 8.8% from year-ago totals.

The number of milk cows on farms in the 23 major states was 8.37 million head, 26,000 head less than July 2009, but 19,000 head more than June 2010. Wisconsin was milking about 1.26 million head of dairy cattle during the month, with total production averaging 1,795 pounds per cow for the month-which was 30 pounds more than last year's average for July. The national per-cow average was up 59 pound at 1,830 pounds per animal.