Milton Orr looked across the rolling hills in northeast Tennessee. “I remember when we had over 1,000 dairy farms in this county. Now we have less than 40,” Orr, an agriculture adviser for Greene County, Tennessee, told me with a tinge of sadness.
That was six years ago. Today, only 14 dairy farms remain in Greene County, and there are only 125 dairy farms in all of Tennessee. Across the country, the dairy industry is seeing the same trend: In 1970, over 648,000 U.S. dairy farms milked cattle. By 2022, only 24,470 dairy farms were in operation.
While the number of dairy farms has fallen, the average herd size – the number of cows per farm – has been rising. Today, more than 60% of all milk production occurs on farms with more than 2,500 cows.
Milton Orr looked across the rolling hills in northeast Tennessee. “I remember when we had over 1,000 dairy farms in this county. Now we have less than 40,” Orr, an agriculture adviser for Greene County, Tennessee, told me with a tinge of sadness.
That was six years ago. Today, only 14 dairy farms remain in Greene County, and there are only 125 dairy farms in all of Tennessee. Across the country, the dairy industry is seeing the same trend: In 1970, over 648,000 U.S. dairy farms milked cattle. By 2022, only 24,470 dairy farms were in operation.
While the number of dairy farms has fallen, the average herd size – the number of cows per farm – has been rising. Today, more than 60% of all milk production occurs on farms with more than 2,500 cows.
Dairy farm numbers have fallen over the past few decades, but larger farms have kept the overall number of cows fairly steady.USDA
This massive consolidation in dairy farming has an impact on rural communities. It also makes it more difficult for consumers to know where their food comes from and how it’s produced.
South Korea is confident it can overcome any obstacles to a multi-billion dollar project to build a nuclear plant in the Czech Republic, despite appeals against the
The United Auto Workers (UAW) union said on Wednesday it has set a strike deadline at Ford's tool and die unit in the River Rouge Complex over local contract issues.
TelevisaUnivision, a Mexican-American media company that combines content from two of the largest Spanish-language broadcasters, will replace its chief
As the U.S. Postal Service faces delivery slowdowns, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Democrat from Georgia, has proposed legislation to impose stricter oversight on who leads the agency