Milk production in the 23 major states in the US continued on its upwards trend during the month of March; it totalled 17.5 billion pounds, up 1.8% from the same month last year.

Production figures for February have been revised to 15.6 billion pounds; down 1.2% from February 2016. However, production was 2.3% above last year – after adjusting for the leap year.

The February revision represented a decrease of 27 million pounds or 0.2% from last month’s preliminary production estimate, according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The production per cow in the 23 major states averaged 2,012 pounds for March – 18 pounds above March 2016. This is the highest production per cow for the month of March since the 23-state series began in 2003, the USDA added.

Meanwhile, the number of milk cows on farms in the 23 major states totalled 8.71 million head last month; 72,000 head more than March 2016 and 15,000 head more than February 2017.

Milk production in the US during the first three months of 2017 amounted to 53.5 billion pounds, up 1% from the same quarter last year.

During the same period the average number of dairy cows in the US equalled 9.37 million head – 25,000 head more than the final quarter of 2016 and 57,000 head more than the same period last year.

Irish milk production continues to fall

Meanwhile, milk production in the Republic of Ireland continued to fall in 2017. Production during the month of February dropped by 7.8% compared with the same month in 2016, figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) revealed.

Domestic milk intake by creameries and pasteurisers was estimated at 264.8 million litres for February 2017. This represented a decrease of 22.3 million litres compared with the previous February (2016).

The level of milk production decreased from 434.7 million litres in January of this year to 413.5 million litres in February. This equated to a month-to-month decrease of 4.9%.

The year-to-year decreases (in milk production) follow on from a fall in production of 4.6% in the first month of 2017 (compared with same month in 2016).