News

February milk production up 1.7%

Milk production in the United States in February totaled 16.2 billion pounds up 1.7 percent from February of 2014. The nation’s dairy herd increased 100,000 from a year ago to 9.31 million head and production per cow increased 9 pounds to average 1,736.

Milk production in the 23 major dairy states was 15.1 billion pounds on February up 1.7 percent from a year ago. There were 8.62 million cows in the 23 states up 106,000 from a year ago and production per cow increased 8 pounds to 1,757.  Nineteen of the 23 states saw an increase in production compared to a year ago, Vermont and Virginia were unchanged while California and New Mexico production was lower.

California produced 3.27 billion pounds of milk in February, 3.8 percent below a year ago. The Golden State’s dairy herd slipped 2,000 head to 1.778 million cows and production per cow fell 50 pounds to average 1,840.

Wisconsin milk production totaled 2.2 billion pounds in February, up 4.3 percent from a year ago. The Badger State added 6,000 cows to make the herd 1.276 million and production per cow increased 65 pounds to average 1,730.

Michigan continues to build their herd with 403,000 cows in February up 22,000 from a year ago. Production per cow increased 35 pounds to average 1,915 and total milk production was 772 million pounds up 7.8 percent from a year ago.

Read the full NASS report here:

Dairy cow slaughter totaled 242,000 in February, 33,000 less than in January and 5,000 more than February of last year. For the first two months of the year, 518,000 dairy cows have been slaughtered under federal inspection, 11,000 more than the first two months of 2014.