Wisconsin Ag Connection - State & National Milk Production Up in May

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State & National Milk Production Up in May
Wisconsin Ag Connection - 06/19/2008

State and national milk production numbers were up once again in May. The USDA announced that total output for the 23 major dairy states rose 3.4 percent from 2007 to 15.4 billion pounds. That figure was also higher than last month's production of 14.8 billion pounds.

Wisconsin dairy farmers produced 2.13 billion pounds of milk in May--up 1.8 percent over last year, and more than April's 2.03 billion pounds. California continues to have the highest total production with about 3.5 billion pounds. Texas recorded the highest percent increase for the month as that state produced 742 million pounds of milk, 14.3 percent over year-ago totals.

The number of milk cows on farms in the 23 major states was 8.46 million head, 162,000 head more than May 2007, and 12,000 head more than April 2008. Wisconsin was milking about 1.25 million head of dairy cattle during the month, with annual total production averaging 1,710 pounds per cow--which was 25 pounds higher than last year's average. The national per-cow average was also up 25 pounds at 1,816 pounds per animal.

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