Weld County, Colorado, plus 11 additional counties from last year's analysis, produced 25 percent of the nation's milk this past May. The nation's other "super-milk" counties included seven in California, along with one each in Arizona, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Washington.
By casting a slightly wider net, 56 counties produced half of the U.S. milk supply, revealed research by the Central Federal Milk Marketing Order administrators based in Kansas City, Mo.
U.S. milk production has consolidated a great deal in recent years with the leading dairy states contributing more to the national total. For example, California and Wisconsin accounted for 34 percent of the U.S. milk production last year. Add New York, Idaho and Pennsylvania to the mix and the top five states accounted for 53 percent of the nation's milk output.
Returning to the information from the Central Federal Milk Marketing Order, if you follow this link, you can review the entire slide deck. It includes counties that marketed: 25 percent of the nation's milk; 50 percent; 75 percent; and the entire milk supply. It also includes a slide highlighting which counties expanded milk production - 763 in total; it also details the 1,138 counties that produced less milk than the previous year.
It should be noted that there is one caveat to this data. It is based on statistics from Federal Milk Marketing Orders and California's State Milk Marketing Order. That means that much of the milk production in Idaho, the nation's fourth largest milk production state, is not included in this survey. Had the majority of Idaho's production been tabulated, the top 12 milk producing counties would have likely produced more than 25 percent of the nation's milk.
If you would like to compare how this data looked last year, click here.
