Productivity

The U.S. agricultural sector has had a long history of increasing productivity. In the dairy sector, research on genetic improvements and nutrition, to name just a few, has boosted production per cow. Figure 12 shows trends in the average productivity of cows, annual milk production per cow. The graph shows strong and consistent trends for all states and there is no apparent deceleration on the horizon. Trends are fairly consistent, for Massachusetts and Wisconsin. Annual production per cow increased by 220 pounds per year in Massachusetts compared to 238 pounds per year in Wisconsin. The annual increases were greater in California (273 pounds per year) and New Mexico (348 pounds per year). Currently, annual production per cow is some 4,000 to 5,000 pounds lower in Wisconsin and Massachusetts. Given the average increases that have occurred over time, this gap in average productivity will continue to grow.

Advances in nutrition, feeding, and genetics all affect production per cow. These advances, due to agricultural research and outreach, represent technical changes in dairy production and many of these changes are embodied in the dairy cows or are at least revealed by the output per cow. Rates of growth in output per cow then represent the rates of change in technology over time. Figure 13 shows the rates of technical change in milk production per cow over time (1970 – 2004). The U.S. average rate of change for this period was 2.06 percent. Idaho leads the way with a 2.4 percent rate of growth. Other Mountain states including Arizona , New Mexico and Colorado all have growth rates that exceed 2.0 percent per year. The growth rate in Massachusetts is at 1.6 percent. Wisconsin and New York both average 1.7 percent growth per year. Our other leading Northeast state, Pennsylvania, had seen milk production per cow grow at 1.7 percent per year.

 

 

Source: Figures were constructed using data from the National Agricultural Statistics Service.