Milk production in the 23 major States during June totaled 16.4 billion pounds, up 0.7% from June 2014. May revised production at 17.2b pounds, was up 1.5% from May 2014. The May revision represented an increase of 12 million pounds or 0.1% from last month's preliminary production estimate.
This is the slowest rate of growth recorded in the past 15 months. Farmgate milk price are falling and margins are starting to reduce. Commodity prices are tracking downward in the US and this is now feeding into farmgate milk prices. The milk:feed price ratio fell below 2 in April 2015. Prior to this the last time the margin was below 2 was in August 2013. In July 2012 the milk:feed ratio was a low as 1.29. At that time milk production did start to contract.
Corn prices are relatively low at present which is helping margins. Milk prices are expected to fall further in the coming months which is likely to result in a further slow down in milk output in the US.
Production per cow in the 23 major States averaged 1895lb for June, no change from the record high of June 2014. The 23 State series began in 2003.
The number of milk cows on farms in the 23 major States was 8.63m head, 56,000 head more than June 2014, but 2000 head fewer than May 2015.
Milk production in the United States during the April-June quarter totalled 53.6b pounds, up 1.4% from the April-June quarter last year.
The average number of milk cows in the United States during the quarter was 9.32m head, 14,000 head more than the January–March quarter, and 66,000 head more than the same period last year.
