While it's the largest federal milk marketing order (FMMO) in terms of area touching 10 states, it took only 107 farms to produce half of the order's milk, reported Central FMMO market administrators. Drilling a bit deeper, only 34 farms accounted for 25 percent of the region's total milk production.
When looking at the largest 34 farms, each one shipped over 6.729 million pounds in October 2013. The next 73 largest farms accounted for 2.782 to 6.729 million pounds of milk that month.
As FMMO administrators noted in their December 2013 Marketing Service Bulletin, similar market share numbers exist in other areas. However, the Central FMMO numbers are slightly higher because a disproportionate number of dairy farms from other states ship milk into the region to gain more favorable prices in many cases.
Of the 174 largest farms shipping more than 1.5 million pounds in October, nearly one-third of those dairy operations were not in the Central FMMO's geographical area. Of those 55 farms outside the region, 22 were from New Mexico; Texas, 21; Wisconsin, 10; Idaho, 1; and Wyoming, 1. Overall, 72 percent of milk pooled in the Central FMMO, came from farms in the order in October 2013.
To read the entire December 2013 issue of the Marketing Service Bulletin, go to http://www.fmmacentral.com/. Click on Publications found on the left tab. Click on Marketing Service Bulletin and download the December 2013 issue.
Hoard's Dairyman Intel readers may also be interested in an earlier item on the same topic, "Eleven counties produce 25 percent of the U.S. milk" in our November 4, 2013, edition.
