Milk production lags in Wisconsin, Minnesota
Milk production is picking up across the country, but not so much in Wisconsin and Minnesota.
The nation's dairy farmers produced 15.8 billion pounds of milk last month. That was a 2 percent increase over March of last year.
The highest rates of improvement were in Texas (7 percent), Idaho (4 percent) and California (3 percent).
Wisconsin produced 2.3 billion pounds last month. While that was 30 million more pounds than from the same time last year, it amounts to an increase of just over 1 percent.
Wisconsin remains No. 2 in the nation behind California, which harvested 3.6 billion pounds.
Minnesota was one of the few states to see a decrease. Farmers there produced 775 million pounds, down 2 percent.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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