Milk production in the 23 major producing states totaled 15,693 million lbs in December, up 2% from December 2011, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in its latest Milk Production report.
Milk production for November was revised to 14,929 million lbs, up 1% from November 2011 and an increase of 31 million lbs from last month’s preliminary production estimate.
December production per cow in the 23 major states averaged 1,848 lbs, up 30 lbs from December 2011. There were 8.49 million dairy cows on farms during the month, 5,000 head more than in December 2011 and 16,000 head more than in November 2012.
January–December milk production totaled 200,284 million lbs, up 2% from 2011. Milk production dipped below year-earlier levels in August, September and October but for each of the other nine months of 2012 it was above the same month of 2011.
