U.S. dairy 2014 statistics:The best financial year in dairy history set many new records

摘要

It WAS a "get well" financial year that the U.S. dairy industry had been hoping for and needing ever since things went horribly wrong in 2009.Before 2014, farm milk prices had never come close to what producers enjoyed month after month. For the year, Class III prices averaged $22.34 per hundredweight, a staggering figure that crushed the previous record set in 2011 by nearly $4. In fact, theannual Class III average in 2014 was higher than every previous monthly price in history.Along the way, according to data released February 20 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the fewest number of dairy farms in history made the most total milk ever. New records were set for production per cow, herd size, and milk per farm, while the dip in licensed farm numbers in 2014 was the smallest since record keeping began.