Nothing remains the same and certainly the U.S. dairy industry is always changing, geographically changing. The production of milk, the processing of milk, and other facilities in the chain are tightly related. This post will provide an analysis of the most recent geographic changes. The data used in this post is based on 12-month moving averages.
The first table below identifies the largest dairy states. These five states produce more than 50% of the U.S. milk.
Chart I below follows the annual percentage change in the U.S. cow population. The decreases and trends suggest that even faster decreases will occur. Cows with more milk per cow and higher component levels reduce the number of cows needed.
WHERE ARE COW NUMBERS INCREASEING?
Table II lists the states with an annual percent increase in cows of over 1%. Four states match this criterion. Table III lists the states with a current annual increase of over 3000 cows. There are only two. South Dakota is growing with ample land and low costs and new cheese plants. Much of this growth is not in a Federal Order. Florida is the smallest federal order state, yet it has the second largest increase in the number of cows. Most of the milk in Florida is used for fluid milk. The increase in cows seems strange, but there are two driving factors. One is the population growth in Florida, which now has a population larger than the state of New York. Also, the large Walmart fluid milk plant in southern Georgia is under construction, and completion is scheduled before the end of 2025. The new Walmart processing plant will need to receive a lot of its milk from nearby farms to minimize the costs of hauling the milk to where it is used. New milk producers in the area will bring new facilities and practices with modern low-cost milk production. The gain in Florida is more than offset by a loss of cows in Georgia.
WHERE ARE COW NUMBERS DECREASING?
The list here is much larger (Tables IV and V). New Mexico continues to decrease milk production as heat waves, water availability, overall cost of operations, and ground contamination continue to make New Mexico an unfavorable environment for milk production. Georgia is also losing a lot of cows, while Florida is growing. Smaller dairy states not included in the list of the 24 larger dairy states have seen significant decreases and represent nearly 25% of the total U.S. decreases in cow numbers.
WHAT MOVES WITH THE COWS?
To have a complete and successful dairy operation, producers, feed mills, processors, milk handlers, and a lot of facilities need to work together. That can create a major boom in new areas and those supporting this development will need to integrate the development effort to “follow the money.”
Obviously, South Dakota is an area that requires the skill of all aspects of dairy product production and it is welcoming dairy expansion to the state.
Companies supporting dairy operations should concentrate on these two growing areas.
