That’s based on looking directly at organic sales from farms — before products reach processors. With that as the standard, milk sales totaled $1.4 billion last year. That’s a whopping 18.3 percent of all organic farm commodities, according to the Certified Organic Survey, 2016 Summary, published by USDA.
Overall, the United States had 2,531 organic dairy farms in 2016 with New York home to 471 and Wisconsin in a close second at 453. Overall, there was 4 billion pounds in total organic milk production. That represented 2 percent of the nation’s 212 billion pounds of milk last year.
The top 10 dairy states, based on organic sales, included:
- California, $278 million from 104 dairy farms
- Texas, $164 million from 6 dairy farms
- Wisconsin, $126 million from 453 dairy farms
- New York, $118 million from 471 dairy farms
- Pennsylvania, $69 million from 300 dairy farms
- Vermont, $61 million from 172 dairy farms
- Washington, $44 million from 41 dairy farms
- Minnesota, $43 million from 108 dairy farms
- Ohio, $42 million from 212 dairy farms
- Iowa, $16 million from 74 dairy farms
