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Co-ops’ share of milk marketed slips

USDA reports that in 2012; 132 cooperatives marketed 81 percent of the nation’s milk production. If you add-in milk from non-members and non-cooperatives, the co-ops handled 167.7 billion pounds or 84 percent of all production. 47 cooperatives received milk, processed and manufactured dairy products while 85 handled no milk but performed other services including marketing and testing. 24 cooperatives marketed 3 billion pounds of organic milk.

USDA surveys dairy cooperatives every five years, compared to 2007, dairy cooperatives marketed nearly 6 percent more milk but a slightly smaller share of the total U.S. production: (80.9% compared to 82.6%) The number of cooperatives declined from 155 to 132 over the five-year period.

Dairy cooperatives marketed 75 percent of the nation’s butter, 91 percent of nonfat and skim milk powders, 43 percent of dry whey products and 22 percent of natural cheeses in 2012. This represents a 28 percent increase in butter, 36 percent increase in powders, 10 percent increase in dry whey and a 5 percent decline in cheese by volume compared to 2007.

The total volume of milk handled by the four biggest cooperatives increased 2 billion pounds, the percentage of total U.S. milk declined 2 percent to 38.7 percent. Almost a quarter of all the milk marketed by cooperatives was through Dairy Farmers of America

While the East North Central Region consisting of Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan had by-far the most co-op members (17,323), the region was second to the West Region for total milk production. (42.9 billion to 59.4 billion). The average co-op producer in the East North Central Region produced 2.5 million pounds of milk in 2012 whereas the average co-op dairyman in the West produced 23.9 million pounds of milk.

Read the full report here: