News

A little more cheese, ice cream produced in May

USDA’s dairy production report shows producers made more cheese and less whey products in May.

The total cheese output was 1.21 billion pounds, up 2.1% over April and seven tenths of a percent from a year ago.  Italian type cheese production was 4.4% higher than a year ago at 505 million pounds, while American type cheese was up from April but 5.7% below year ago levels at 488 million pounds.

Butter production was 1.6% lower than April, but 4% above year-ago levels at 204 million pounds.

Whey product production was down from year-ago levels, with dry whey production down 6.3% at 76.6 million pounds.  Lactose was down 2.7% and whey protein concentrate was off 3.2% from 2023.

Ice cream production ticked upward, with hard ice cream production at 65.97 million gallons, up slightly from April and up 2.3% from 2023.  Lowfat ice cream was also up from April, but down 6.1% from a year ago at 40.2 million gallons.  Yogurt and frozen yogurt production was also higher in May.

Cheese production is still led by Wisconsin with 294.8 million pounds in April followed by California with 206.5 million pounds and Idaho with 89.3 million pounds. 139.9 million pounds of California’s production is Italian style cheese, with more than 129 million pounds of that as Mozzarella.

California leads the nation in butter production with 63.2 million pounds in April.  They also make the most ice cream with more than 8.5 million gallons produced.