Don't look now, but Michigan's dairy industry is on a roll.
Surprise, California's is not.
California is still the largest U.S. dairy state for both cows and milk, and by a wide margin, but not much is going well in the Golden State these days.
Meanwhile, out in the Upper Midwest just about all that's dairy in the Great Lakes State seems to be going . . . well, great.
According to statistics just released by USDA, Michigan dairy cow numbers climbed in 2015 . . . for the 13th year in a row, while California's fell slightly for the second time in three years.
Michigan's total milk production gained 6.7 percent for the year and is up 23 percent the last decade. California, however, dropped 3.4 percent for the year and is up just 1.3 percent for the decade.
Even so, California is still roughly four times the size of Michigan in both total cows and total milk.
But the real eye-opener in 2015 was average production per cow. Always sunny California dropped by 784 pounds per cow and ranked only ninth in the U.S. at 23,002 pounds, barely 600 pounds above the national average. Over the last five years its production per cow has gone down by 23 pounds.
Michigan's herd average was slightly above California's five years ago, but it was well above it in 2015, thanks to an increase of 492 pounds. As a result, Michigan ranked No. 2 last year at 25,130 pounds and became only the third state to break the 25,000-pound barrier.
Michigan's production average has gone up 1,853 pounds in the last five years, nearly 50 percent more than the U.S. rate of increase.
Average herd size in Michigan was 217 head, three above the national average. California's average was 1,214.
(c) Hoard's Dairyman Intel 2016
March 7, 2016
