The average herd size in dairies has increased nearly 300 percent, while the midpoint of near 900 cows is a 600-plus percent increase.
Source: Hoard’s Dairyman, April 25, 2016.
Just 20 years ago, farms with less than 100 cows, 135,000 in total, were home to half of the nation’s milk cows. That same group, under 100 cows, had only 17 percent of the total in 2012. Meanwhile, the number of farms with over 1,000 cows tripled to 1,807 farms during that same snapshot in time.