Dramatic changes have unfolded in the dairy industry during the last five generations. They include more ore milk production occurring on fewer farms, plus large-scale operations expanding into non-traditional markets. Karen Bohnert examines the top dairy states in the next decade.
Source: Dairy Herd Management, August 31, 2021. Link. The June 2021 USDA’s Milk Production report indicated the top 10 states remained unchanged, although a little reshuffling occurred. And there are now six states in the billion-pounds-per-month club:
- California – 3.5 billion lbs.
- Wisconsin – 2.6 billion lbs.
- Idaho – 1.4 billion lbs.
- New York – 1.3 billion lbs.
- Texas – 1.3 billion lbs.
- Michigan – 1.0 billion lbs.
INSIGHTS: The billion pounds per month states are producing 11.1 billion pounds monthly. That translates to 1.4 trillion gallons. A typical semi-truck and trailer tanker holds an average of 7500 gallons. That’s 185,000 tanker truckloads of milk which would fill 2,100 regulation Olympic swimming pools.