USDA released their October Milk Production report on Monday with total U.S. milk production at 17.905 billion pounds. Analysts at INTL FCStone expected the total to be 17.988 billion pounds and are calling the report ‘slightly bullish.’
“The big culprit on the miss for total milk production was milk per cow which came in at 1,912 vs. our estimate for 1,923,” the analysts said. “Milk cow numbers declined far less than expected coming in at 9.365 million vs. our expectation for 9.356 million.”
The 23-state milk production came in at 16.874 billion pounds. Cow numbers totaled 8.723 million head, which was down just 1,000 head from the month prior. Milk per cow came in shy of analyst expectations at 1,934 vs. an expected 1,945.
In a rare event, 12 of the 23 states were lower on milk production year over year: Virginia was down 10.6%, Florida was down 5.5%, Indiana down 4.8%, Illinois down 4.5%, Ohio down 4.1%, and Pennsylvania down 3.8%.
A few states made up for those losses: Colorado up 10.1%, Texas up 7.5%, Kansas up 6.1%, South Dakota up 4.1% and California was up 3.2%.