Background Milk
These US dairy farms are the most efficient
Dairy farms in the United States with XNUMX to XNUMX cows are the most efficient in terms of milk production. They benefit best from all existing economies of scale and technical progress. As a result, they also do better than even larger companies.
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The above is evident from a recent report from the Economic Research Division of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The employees of the research department have studied developments in American dairy farming between 2000 and 2020 and have identified a number of remarkable developments.
Group of small businesses almost halved
For example, the number of small farms, those with fewer than a hundred cows, has almost halved in the period mentioned. In 2002, 73.725 of these types of companies were counted. In 2017, 40.548 remained. In 2002, this category of farms accounted for 29% of the dairy herd, but in 2017 it accounted for only 13%.
The number of farms with more than a thousand cows increased from 1.256 in 2002 to 1.953 farms in 2017. The share of this group in the total dairy herd rose from 28,8% to 55,2%. The remaining 15% of the livestock was on farms with one hundred to one thousand cows.
When it comes to milk supply, the differences in development are even greater. The 13% of farms with fewer than a hundred cows accounted for only 2017% of national milk production in 3,9. The group of companies with more than a thousand cows supplied 63,3% of the total milk production in that year.
Due to genetic improvements and technical progress, the supply per cow has increased every year over the past twenty years by more than 2,5% (or more than 2.500 kilos) to 10.785 kilos. The total livestock herd increased minimally: from 9,2 million to 9,4 million.
Organic sector more profitable
American organic dairy farming barely participated in this turbulent development. Annual milk production per cow increased by only 0,66% per year, to approximately 6.810 kilos per cow in 2017. This sector accounts for 2,35% of dairy sales. But although organic dairy farmers in the United States cannot and may not do many things that their conventional colleagues can do and the farms are on average smaller, the farms can make ends meet better with a smaller number of animals. Mainly thanks to the significantly higher milk price.
In 2016, an average dairy farm with two thousand cows was barely in the black, while an organic farm needed just over a thousand cows to stay out of the red.