Wisconsin Ag Connection - State Milk Output Up in January, Down Nationally

Wisconsin Ag News Headlines

State Milk Output Up in January, Down Nationally
Wisconsin Ag Connection - 02/22/2010

For the sixth consecutive month, January milk production numbers were lower across the country, while Wisconsin's was up compared to year-ago levels. The USDA announced that total output for the 23 major dairy states fell by 0.6 percent from 2009 to 14.8 billion pounds. That figure was also lower than December's production of 14.6 billion.

Wisconsin dairy farmers produced 2.16 billion pounds of milk in January--up 4.7 percent above last year, and higher than December's 2.14 billion pounds. California continues to have the highest total production with about 3.3 billion pounds. Washington recorded the highest percent-increase for the month at 487 million pounds of milk, about five percent over year-ago totals.

The number of milk cows on farms in the 23 major states was 8.32 million head, 191,000 head less than January 2009, but 4,000 head more than December 2009. Wisconsin was milking about 1.26 million head of dairy cattle during the month, with total production averaging 1,715 pounds per cow for the month--which was 72 pounds more than last year's average for January. The national per-cow average was up 30 pound at 1,782 pounds per animal.