Post

Milk production up 1.2 percent in March

Milk production in the United States in March totaled 18 billion pounds up 1.2 percent from March of last year.  The nation’s dairy herd was at 9.3 million head, 78,000 more cows than a year ago and production per cow increased 8 pounds to average 1,941 pounds.

Milk production in the 23 major dairy states in March totaled 16.9 billion pounds up 1.1 percent from March of 2014.  Production per cow in the 23 states increased 2 pounds to average 1,959 per cow while the states added 86,000 cows making the herd 8.62 million.  Of the 23 states: 18 saw an increase in production compared to a year ago, Vermont held steady and California, New Mexico, Texas and Oregon saw declines.

California milk production was down 2.9 percent compared to a year ago.  The Golden State produced 3.7 billion pounds of milk.  Production per cow slipped 60 pounds to average 2,080 and the dairy herd declined 2,000 to 1.78 million cows.

For the first three months of the year, U.S. milk production totaled 51.9 billion pounds up 1.7 percent from the first quarter of 2014.  There were 9.3 million dairy cows in the country during the period, 17,000 more than the October-through-December quarter and 88,000 more than the first three months of 2014.  California production for the quarter was down 3 percent from the same period a year ago while Wisconsin increased 3.7 percent.

Read the full NASS report here: