State’s milk output falls in 3rd quarter
Arkansas’ milk production and the state’s dairy herd continued to shrink in the third quarter, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Milk production in Arkansas from July through September was 22 million pounds, down 21 percent from the same period last year when the state was in the grip of a drought. In the U.S., milk production was up 2 percent for the third quarter, for a total of 49.42 billion pounds of milk.
The dairy herd in the state for the third quarter was 8,000 head, down 2,000 head, or 20 percent, compared with the same period in 2012. The U.S. dairy herd was 9.23 million head for the July through September period, up one-half of a percentage point compared with 2012.
At the end of 2012, there were 97 dairy farms permitted by the Arkansas Department of Health, down from 271 in 2003. The number of permitted dairy farms in the state in 2013 was unavailable Friday afternoon.
- John Magsam
Firm buys Baldor’s generator division
Baldor Electric Company’s sale of its generator business to industry leader Generac Holdings Inc. was finalized Friday.
The Fort Smith-based company’s generator division accounts for 3 percent of Baldor’s total sales, according to a company statement. The terms of the sale were not released.
Phone calls and emails to Baldor and Generac were not returned Friday afternoon.
Publicly traded Generac is based in Wisconsin and is purchasing almost all of Baldor’s generator-set business, including the division’s facility in Oshkosh, Wis.
The plant makes portable, standby, prime-power and peak-shaving generators in the 3-kilowatt to 2.5-megawatt range. Generator sets combine a generator and an engine mounted as a single unit.
Baldor’s generator segment workers are now employees of Generac, and the Wisconsin facility will be part of Generac’s manufacturing operations. The Baldor brand name is not included in the deal.
- John Magsam
State index up 0.35, ends week at 310.67
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, rose 0.35 to 310.67 Friday.
Ten stocks advanced and seven declined.
USA Truck climbed 2.7 percent in three times its average volume. Deltic Timber and First Financial Bancshares each fell 1.8 percent.
For the week, nine stocks dropped and eight rose.
Volume for the index was 19.3 million shares. The average daily volume for the week was 19.6 million shares.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business, Pages 31 on 11/02/2013