U.S. dairy production has changed substantially over the past two decades. Milk production has increased as has the number of dairy cows and the milk yield per cow. A new University of Illinois analysis shows how production gains in the past two decades are the result of markedly different growth strategies across regions and explores what these regional growth trends mean for future dairy production decisions.
Economists Jared Hutchins and Joe Janzen focused on the fifteen states with the most dairy cows and distinguished between “traditional” dairy states with small herd sizes and a long history of dairy production and “modern” dairy states with large herds where the dairy sector has only recently reached its current scale.
While each region comprises a roughly equal share of total U.S. milk production, Hutchins and Janzen said traditional and modern dairy states have grown in very different ways.
Nov 6, 2023
Comments