Over the past two decades, the U.S. dairy industry has evolved, with fewer dairy farms producing more milk. This raises questions about how dairy farms have changed in size, diversification, location, use of advanced technology, and cost of production.
A report issued today by USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS), Structure, Costs, and Technology Used on U.S. Dairy Farms, addresses these questions and how dairy farms differ by size of the operation and by region.
Here are a few findings from the report:
- Consistent with long-term trends, the number of U.S. dairy farms has fallen (while milk production has risen), with larger dairy farms emerging that produce more milk per cow.
- Moderate shifts in the location of dairy farms occurred between 2002 and 2022, with Texas and Idaho gaining production share and California losing production share.
- Dairy farm usage has trended upward for several advanced technologies, management practices, and production systems: automatic take-offs, computerized milking systems, use of a milking parlor, and milking cows three or more times daily. The use of bovine somatotropin (bST) has decreased.
For more information, please refer to the full report.
USDA news release
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