Milk production in the 23 major states during the month of May totalled 17.8 billion lb, the latest figures released by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) show.

The USDA also decided to revise production figures for the month of April to 17.2 billion lb; this meant that production in April increased by 2.2%, compared to the same month in 2016.

The April revision represented an increase of 36 million lb, or a climb of 0.2%, from last month’s preliminary production estimate by the USDA.

Meanwhile, production per cow in the 23 major states averaged 2,035lb for May 2017; this was an increase of 16lb, when compared with the figures from May last year.

This is the highest level of milk production per cow ever recorded for the month of May, since the 23 major states series began in 2003, according to the USDA. A similar production milestone was also reached during April.

In May, the number of dairy cows on farms across the 23 major states equalled 8.72 million head; this was an increase of 81,000 head, compared to the corresponding month in 2016.

The number of dairy cows across the 23 major states in the fifth month of this year also grew by 2,000 head, in comparison to figures from the previous month.

Across the entire US, milk production rose by 1.8% during the month of May year-on-year; it totalled 18.9 billion lb, USDA figures show.

Overall, production per cow in the US averaged 2,016lb for May. This was an increase of 19lb, compared to the same month in 2016.

In May of this year, dairy cow numbers on farms across the entire US totalled 9.39 million head. This was 71,000 head more than May 2016 and 2,000 head more than April 2017.

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