On Friday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that average milk production per cow was 7 pounds higher than July 2011, which accounted for much of the increase, along with fact there were 29,000 more milk cows nationwide. (Note: these figures are for all 50 states. The USDA includes numbers for the top 23 dairy states and the nation as a whole.)
In the top 23 dairy states, milk production was up 0.8 percent from July 2011.
The states showing the largest increases in July were: Colorado (5.8 percent), Utah (5.6 percent) and Missouri (4.7) percent. All of these states experienced hot, dry weather in July. Surprisingly, Washington state, which escaped the worst of the heat, was down 3.3 percent on a year-over-year-basis.
