The old adage goes something like “When prices are bad, milk more cows. When prices are good, milk more cows.” Well, dairy producers are taking advantage of the recovery milk prices have seen in the second half of 2020, and as a whole, are milking more cows, but that wasn’t the main factor for increased milk production.
The USDA October milk production report released this week shows U.S. milk production reached nearly 18.6 billion pounds, up 2.3% from 2019. The U.S. dairy herd size was reported at 9.4 million head, just 0.5% (43,000 cows) more than the previous year. What increased more substantially was milk per cow. USDA reports October milk production per cow was 1,997 lb., an increase of 1.9% or 37 lb. from 2019.
States that increased milk production the most include: South Dakota (12.9%), Indiana (10.7%), and Texas (8.2%). The state that saw the largest decline in milk production was Utah falling -3.7%.
U.S. milk production year to date for 2020 reached 186 billion pounds, up 3.5 billion pounds from 2019.
