Dairy Facts: A look at Ohio dairy farm numbers 2002 to 2005

Dr. Cameron Thraen, Milk Marketing Specialist, The Ohio State University, Additional milk marketing information by Dr. Thraen

Each February, the United States Department of Agriculture, in the report Milk Production, releases estimates of the number of dairy farm operations by state and the entire United States. These numbers are reported for all operations with at least one milk cow, and beginning in 2003 they provide a separate estimate of licensed dairy operations. They also release information on the number of dairy farm operations classified by the number of cows in the operation. Tables 1 and 2 below show you a summary of this information for Ohio over the time period 2001 to 2005. During this period, the number of US dairy operations, with at least one milk cow, decreased by 14.8%, from 91,990 in 2002 to 78,295 in 2005. The US licensed operations declined by 8% over 2003 to 2005. Today, there are an estimated 64,555 licensed dairy operations in the United States.

Table 1. Ohio dairy operations with at least one cow by herd size.

Year
1-29 Head
30-49 Head
50-99 Head
100-199 Head
200-499 Head
500+ Head
Total Operations
2002
2300
860
1200
480
135
25
5000
2003
2100
860
1100
470
140
30
4700 (3960)1
2004
2000
800
1000
525
140
35
4500 (3780)1
2005
1900
850
950
500
150
50
4400 (3610)1

1Number of licensed operations.

Table 2. Ohio dairy operations with at least one cow by herd size (%).

Year
1-99 Head
100-199 Head
200-499 Head
500+ Head
2002
87.2
9.6
2.7
0.5
2003
86.4
10.0
3.0
0.6
2004
84.4
11.7
3.1
0.8
2005
84.1
11.4
3.4
1.1