Arkansas milk production was down 6% in the second quarter of 2021 when compared with last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Dairy cows in Arkansas produced 17 million pounds of milk for the April-through-June period, down from 18 million pounds for the same period in 2020 but unchanged from the first quarter of 2021, according to a department release. A gallon of milk weighs 8.6 pounds.
The number of cows on dairy farms in the state was 5,000 unchanged between the second quarter of 2020 and 2021 and has stayed flat through the past 12 months.
Across the United States, dairies produced 58.1 billion pounds of milk in the second quarter, up 3.7 % from 56.8 billion for the year-ago period. The number of milk cows was 9.5 million for the quarter, up 141,000 head, or 1.5%, from the second quarter of 2020.