By David Anderson
We’ll take a break from the cattle and beef market news of the last week to take a look at dairy markets. However, there is one important interaction between beef and dairy markets that intersects with recent news.
Profitable milk prices and falling feed costs in 2024 have led to a surge in the number of dairy cows since the first of the year. USDA’s August Milk Production report indicated 9.52 million dairy cows in the U.S. That is the highest number of dairy cows since 1993. The number of dairy cows in the U.S. has typically fluctuated between 9.3 and 9.4 million over the last decade. Cow numbers are particularly higher in the Plains. Dairy cows in Texas hit 699,000 head; this is the most dairy cows in the state since 1958! Milk processing capacity is growing hand in hand with cow numbers.
In addition to more cows, milk production per cow has increased since April. Production per cow hit 2,050 pounds in August, the largest August milk production per cow on record, up 1.3 percent compared to August 2024. The combination of more cows and more milk per cow has milk production up 3.6 percent over the last 3 months compared to the same period last year.
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