US dairy production rises year-on-year

The US dairy market has seen an overall rise in year-on-year production with slight decreases in the production of some cheeses and dry milk, according to the latest dairy report from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The total US butter production in August was 133Mlb, 31% above August 2010 but 1.6% below July 2011, while the total cheese output (excluding cottage cheese) was 868Mlb – 0.3% below August 2010 but 1.5% above July 2011.

Italian type cheese production totalled 364Mlb, 0.2% below August 2010 but 0.6% above July 2011, while American type cheese production accounted for 347Mlb, 1% below August 2010 and 0.9% below July 2011.

The non-fat dry milk production in August was 113Mlb, down 5.1% from August 2010, while skimmed milk powders production was 38.7Mlb, up 156.6%.

Dry whey production totalled 79.8Mlb, down 2.1%, lactose production was 82.9Mlb, up 3.4%, and whey protein concentrate production was 35.6Mlb, up 1.2%.

Regular ice cream production in August was 77.4 million gallons, up 4.7% from the previous year, while low-fat ice cream production grew by 8.4% to 40.9 million gallons.

Sherbet production for the year resulted in 4.2 million gallons, up 8.9%; and frozen yogurt production was 5.4 million gallons, up 13.6%.