Weekly Dairy Market Outlook

By Ken Bailey

Penn State University

March 17, 2006

February Milk Production Up 5.9%

• Milk production for 23 states was 13.0 billion pounds, up 5.9%
• Production per cow for 23 states was 1,588 pounds in February, up 66 pounds from a year ago
• The number of milk cows in 23 states was 8.21 million head, up 121,000 head from February a year ago and 10,000 head more than a month ago.

Milk production growth appears out of control. For the month of February, milk production in 23 major states was up 5.9 percent. February is typically not a bellwether month for predicting growth rates since it has the lowest number of days for any month in the year. But it continues very strong growth rates in milk production growth. Cow numbers have continued a steady rate of growth month after month, and milk per cow is up over a year ago.

Of the 23 major states in the U.S., only 4 had negative growth rates. The top five milk producing states had growth rates of 4.4-8.3 percent over a year ago. It is likely that this rate of growth will continue for the next few months.

Headline: Want to get a friendly weekly reminder via email that my dairy outlook report is available? Subscribe to my email service. To subscribe, send a blank email to join-dairyoutlook@lists.cas.psu.edu.