New York milk production and prices slip in latest month

Dairy farms in New York state produced 1.339 billion pounds of milk in January, down 0.4 percent from 1.345 billion pounds in the year-prior month, according to the monthly milk-production report that the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) issued on Feb. 21.

Milk production per cow in the state averaged 2,125 pounds in the first month of 2024, down 0.5 percent from 2,135 pounds in January 2023. The number of milk cows on farms in the Empire State totaled 630,000 head in January, unchanged from the year-ago month, NASS reported.

Milk prices also declined in the latest month for which data is available. New York dairy farms were paid an average of $21.90 per hundredweight of milk in December 2023, down 12 percent from $24.90 in December 2022, and off more than 5 percent from $23.20 in November 2023.