Wisconsin Sets Another Record for Milk Production in 2017

Tuesday, February 27th, 2018

Preliminary figures from the USDA show that Wisconsin produced 30.3 billion pounds of milk last year, about 0.7 percent more than the previous record of 30.1 billion pounds harvested in 2016. Milk per cow also rose to an all-time high of 23,725 pounds, up 183 pounds from the year earlier.

As of January 1, there were 8,801 licensed milk cow operations in the state. That was down 503 from a year ago, and the third consecutive year that the herd count was below the 10,000 mark in generations.

The total number of milk cows at year’s end was around 1.28 million head, about 5,000 less than the previous year–keeping Wisconsin second behind California for number of milk cows.

The average number of milk cows during January, at 1.28 million head, was 1,000 fewer than last month and 5,000 fewer than last year, according to USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service, released Feb. 21. (Photo: Melissa Bond, NASS)

U.S milk production

The annual production of milk for the United States during 2017 was 215 billion pounds, 1.4 percent above 2016. Revisions to 2016 production decreased the annual total 31 million pounds. Revised 2017 production was up 35 million pounds from last month’s publication. Annual total milk production has increased 13.4 percent from 2008.

Production per cow in the United States averaged 22,941 pounds for 2017, 163 pounds above 2016. The average annual rate of milk production per cow has increased 12.5 percent from 2008.

The average number of milk cows on farms in the United States during 2017 was 9.39 million head, up 0.7 percent from 2016. The average number of milk cows was unrevised for 2017. The average annual number of milk cows has increased 0.8 percent from 2008.

January Milk Production up 1.8 Percent in 23 Major Dairy States

Milk production in the 23 major States during January totaled 17.3 billion pounds, up 1.8 percent from January 2017. December revised production, at 17.0 billion pounds, was up 1.1 percent from December 2016. The December revision represented an increase of 4 million pounds or less than 0.1 percent from last month’s preliminary production estimate.

Production per cow in the 23 major States averaged 1,979 pounds for January, 24 pounds above January 2017. This is the highest production per cow for the month of January since the 23 State series began in 2003.

The number of milk cows on farms in the 23 major States was 8.74 million head, 49,000 head more than January 2017, and 4,000 head more than December 2017.