Arizona Dairy Facts
- Milk produced by U.S. dairy farmers is processed into more than 1.5 billion pounds of butter, more than 9.7 billion pounds of cheese, more than 1.5 billion pounds of nonfat dry milk, and nearly 1.5 billion pounds of ice cream.
- Dairy herds in the United States are quite diverse. The average dairy herd in the United States has about 128 cows. Arizona has the largest dairies, averaging approximately 2000 cows, followed by California, which averages 824 cows; the remaining top five include New Mexico with an average of 814 cows, Idaho with 684 cows, and Washington with 313 cows.
- Arizona cows produce approximately 220 million pounds of milk, which is about 2% of our nation’s supply. Arizona ranks 13th in milk production.
- The nation’s top milk-producing states, with share of the nation’s milk produced, are California (22 percent), Wisconsin (13 percent), New York (6 percent), Idaho (6 percent), and Pennsylvania (6 percent).
- The average cow in the United States produces about 7 gallons of milk per day. The production by some high-producing cows can be twice that amount, however.
- A cow begins producing milk after the birth of her first calf, generally around 2 years of age. From this point, a cow will give birth to one calf each year.
- In 2007, the United States produced more than 185 billion pounds of milk. This is equivalent to about 21 billion gallons.