Answer this quiz question . . . Does the United States export more corn or dairy products?Most people answering that question would pick corn.
That answer would be an incorrect answer.
"Last year 15, almost 16 percent of all the dairy production in this country was exported," noted USDA Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.
"That puts you above corn," he told those attending the joint annual meeting of the National Milk Producers Federation and Dairy Management Inc.
"If you had a quiz today and asked people across the country, ‘Are we exporting more of our corn or our dairy?' I think probably most people would say corn," he went on to surmise since the United States easily ranks first in corn production with China a distant second.
"The reality is more of dairy is being exported. That rate has nearly tripled in the last 14 to 15 years. The U.S. is now the second-largest exporter of dairy products around the world," he concluded, noting that New Zealand is the world's largest dairy exporter.
(c) Hoard's Dairyman Intel 2015
December 28, 2015
