Wisconsin Ag Connection - State Milk Production Fell During August

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State Milk Production Fell During August
Wisconsin Ag Connection - 09/18/2020

It looks like Wisconsin dairy cows were not able to produce more milk during August when compared to a year earlier, despite seeing higher output in July for the first time in eight months. The USDA reports that production in America's Dairyland totaled 2.62 billion pounds during the month--down a fractional 0.3 percent from last August, but higher than the 2.61 billion made in July 2020.

Nationally, 17.8 billion pounds of milk was produced in the 24 major dairy states for the month. That was a 1.9 percent increase from 2019, but lower than the previous month's 17.9 billion.

California continues to have the highest total production with about 3.38 billion pounds. South Dakota had the greatest percent-increase in output as that state produced 267 million pounds of milk--about 10.8 percent more from the same period last year. Sixteen of the top 24 states had higher year-to-year production last month.

Meanwhile, the number of milk cows on farms in the 24 major states was 8.84 million head, 51,000 head more than August 2019, but unchanged from July 2020. The average number of milk cows on Wisconsin farms for the month was 1.26 million head, unchanged from last month, but down 10,000 from last year. Monthly production per cow averaged 2,080 pounds, which was 10 pounds per cow more than last year's figures.

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