Texas Slated to be Nation’s Third-Largest Dairy Producer

Everything’s bigger in Texas, including…dairy? As of this year, it very well could be. Texas is poised to surpass Idaho in annual milk production as the nation’s third-largest dairy state. Texas has stayed near the sixth place for national milk production behind California, Wisconsin, New York, Idaho and Pennsylvania.

At the close of 2022, Idaho saw Texas closely in its rearview mirror with as little as 104,000 pounds of milk separating the two. In 2015, Texas produced 10.3 billion pounds of milk, while Idaho produced 14.1. In 2022, Texas upped its amount by 6.2 billion pounds for a milk growth rate of 60.5% to reach 16.5 billion pounds. In the same year, Idaho also increased its production to 16.6 billion pounds.

But how far could Texas go in its dairy growth? Likely not much past the third slot, as Wisconsin produces a whopping 31 billion pounds each year.

Read more on U.S. dairy production and Texas’ growth here.