Total cheese production in the U.S. in December was 862 million pounds, 0.1 percent below December of 2008. The National Ag Statistics Service reports Italian type production was 2.5 percent above a year ago at 373 million pounds while American type production was 2.6 percent lower at 349 million pounds. Cheddar production was 8.3 percent lower than a year ago.
Wisconsin cheese production in December totaled 221.2 million pounds up 2 percent from December of 2008. The Badger State increased Italian cheese production 5.4 percent to 109 million pounds. American type production slipped 0.8 percent to 71.4 million pounds; cheddar was 1.5 percent lower at 55.3 million.
Total cheese production in California in December was 175.87 million pounds, down 2.3 percent from a year earlier. Italian cheese production increased 0.1 percent in the Golden State to 104.76 million pounds. American type production slipped 4.4 percent to 54.2 million pounds; cheddar output was 10.3 percent lower at 30.6 million pounds.
Rounding out the top-five cheese producing states: Idaho 67.8 million pounds, New York 59.8 million, New Mexico 57 million pounds.
Butter production in the U.S. in December totaled 150 million pounds, 4.3 percent below December of 2008.
Other products compared to December of 2008:
- Nonfat dry milk, 126 million pounds, down 18.6%
- Skim milk powder, 20.7 million pounds, up 16.4%
- Dry whey, 91.2 million pounds, up slightly
- Lactose, 64.2 million pounds, up 6.3 %
- Whey protein concentrate, 35.3 million pounds, down 2%
- Regular ice cream, 49.4 million gallons, down 7.1%
- Lowfat ice cream, 23.1 million gallons, up 6%
- Sherbet, 2.87 million gallons, down 16.6%
- Frozen Yogurt, 4.13 million gallons, down 6%
For the year, total cheese production in the United States was 10.1 billion pounds up 1.7 percent from 2008. American type cheese production was 2.4 percent higher at 4.1 billion pounds; cheddar was 0.7 percent higher, 3.1 billion pounds. Italian cheese output totaled 4.2 billion pounds, up 1.5 percent while total butter production slipped 4.6 percent to 1.567 billion pounds for the year.
Read the full NASS report here:
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