August 30, 2011

US New York's milk output drops in July

The dairy herds of New York produced 1,092 million pounds of milk in July, stated King Whetstone, director of the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service, New York field office.

Milk cows were down, but production per cow was unchanged from the previous year, resulting in a 0.2% decrease in milk production compared to July 2010, said Whetstone.

The number of milk cows averaged 610,000 heads, down slightly from July of the previous year.

Milk per cow averaged 1,790 pounds, unchanged from the July 2010 rate.

Dairy farmers in the Empire State received an average of US$23.10 per hundredweight of milk sold during July, up US$0.70 from June and US$5.70 more than July a year ago.

Milk production in the 23 major states during July totalled 15.4 billion pounds, up 0.8% from July 2010, said Whetstone. June revised production at 15.4 billion pounds, was up 1.3% from June 2010, said Whetstone. The June revision represented a decrease of 5 million pounds or less than 0.1% from last month's preliminary production estimate, said Whetstone. Production per cow in the 23 major states averaged 1,824 pounds for July, five pounds below July 2010. The number of milk cows on farms in the 23 major states was 8.47 million heads, 93,000 heads more than July 2010, and 8,000 heads more than June, said Whetstone.