Milk Production Inches Below Previous Year

WASHINGTON - Jan 16/04 - SNS -- Milk production levels in the United States inched below previous year totals in December, slipping 0.3% to 12.3 billion pounds in the 20 major producing states.

In releasing the data, the USDA noted November production was revised to 11.7 billion pounds, was down 0.1% from November 2002. The November revision represented an increase of 13 million pounds or 0.1% from last month's preliminary production estimate.

Production per cow in the 20 major States averaged 1,589 pounds for December, 14 pounds above December 2002. The number of milk cows on farms in the 20 major States was 7.71 million head, 93,000 head less than December 2002, but unchanged from November 2003.

Milk production in the U.S. during the October-December quarter totaled 41.3 billion pounds, down 0.6% from the October-December quarter last year. The average number of milk cows in the U.S. during the quarter was 9.01 million head, 141,000 head less than the same period last year.

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