Background Dairy
This is the dairy capital of America
What Las Vegas is to the gambling industry, Tulare is to the dairy industry. This sleepy place somewhere in the middle of California has by far the most cows and can rightly be called the dairy capital of the United States. The economy here literally runs on milk.
As many as 2017 dairy cows were kept in Tulare and surrounding villages (Tulare County) in 502.402, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced. With those numbers, Tulare has long been the largest dairy community in the United States. The county of Merced (also California) follows a street length away with more than 270.000 cows.
The total number of dairy cows in the United States was 2017 million in 9,3, so about 5% of that is kept in Tulare. Milk production there was just under 2 million tons two years ago, which is good for about 5% of the total milk pool in California. To put the numbers into perspective, about 25% of the total US milk supply comes from California dairy farms.
Major companies in Golden Sate
It's no surprise that the 4 largest dairy communities in the United States are in California. Dairy farms in 'the Golden State' are impressively large with an average of almost 1.300 cows, often involving foreign labor (often Mexicans).
In 2017 Tulare had 222 dairy farms, mainly family farms. A simple calculation shows that the average size is 2.254 cows. Even by American standards this is considerable, because an average dairy farm in the United States has about 250 cows. For example, in Wisconsin, the second largest dairy state in the United States, farms with an average of 150 cows are more European.
Tulare also has several mega farms with around 10.000 cows. The majority of dairy farmers there milk Holstein-Friesians, but Jersey cows are also popular.
Milk important for the economy
Tulare itself has about 60.000 inhabitants. About 3 people live in the total County, which in terms of area is more than 600.000 times smaller than the Netherlands. So the number of cows versus people does not differ that much. It is therefore not so surprising that the economy is based on milk. In Tulare, the 5 largest employers are feed producers and dairy processors. With such concentrated milk production, it is therefore no surprise that large milk processors (such as Land O'Lakes, Kraft and Saputa) have a base here.
A number of videos can be found on YouTube showing the dairy farms in this area. The images below confirm the large animal numbers and the spaces per company.
Wouter Job
© DCA Market Intelligence. This market information is subject to copyright. It is not permitted to reproduce, distribute, disseminate or make the content available to third parties for compensation, in any form, without the express written permission of DCA Market Intelligence.