New York milk production slips slightly in November

New York dairy farms produced 1.24 billion pounds of milk in November, down 0.2 percent from 1.243 billion pounds in the year-ago month, the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) recently reported.

Milk production per cow in the state averaged 1,975 pounds in November, off 0.5 percent from 1,985 pounds in the year-prior month.

The number of milk cows on farms in New York state totaled 628,000 head in November, up 0.3 percent from 626,000 head in November 2020, NASS reported.

Milk prices rose in the latest month for which data is available. New York dairy producers in October were paid an average of $19.90 per hundredweight, up $1 from September, and up $1.10 from October 2020.

In neighboring Pennsylvania, dairy farms produced 800 million pounds of milk in November, down 3.5 percent from a year before.