The summer heat did not stop Wisconsin’s dairy cows from having a banner month for milk production. The Badger State produced just over two-and-a-quarter billion pounds of milk in June, two-and-a-half percent more than the same month a year ago. Nationally, the increase was just nine-tenths of one-percent – the smallest year-to-year jump so far in 2012. Wisconsin added six-thousand cows last month to a herd that totals one-and-a-quarter million. And the state’s average production per cow rose by 35-pounds, way up from the national increase of just eight-pounds – which is the smallest of the year by far. Wisconsin is the nation’s second-largest milk producer. First-place California raised its production by only three-tenths of a percent from last June, and its output per cow dropped by 10 pounds. Of the 23 major dairy-producing states, five had decreases in their production, including neighboring Iowa and Minnesota. Two other states had no change.
