Arizona Dairy Demographics for 2006

U.S. dairy producers set historic records for total milk production and milk produced per cow in 2006. A recent USDA long-term projection report predicts that through 2016 the number of milk cows in the U.S. will continue to decrease while milk production per cow will increase. In 2006, Arizona ranked:

• 2nd - Average herd size in 2006
  1,331 cows per dairy
• 3rd - Average pounds of milk produced per cow
  22,855 milk lbs/cow
• 13th - Total milk production
  Arizona produced an estimated 3,954,000,000 pounds of milk. This was a 5.7% increase over 2005.
• 13th - Total number of cows
  Approximately 173,000 head
• 38th - Number of licensed herds
  130 licensed dairy herds.