News

U.S. made more cheese and butter, less frozen dairy and powder in 2023

Cheese, butter, and whey production went up in 2023 as frozen dairy and milk powder production went down.

USDA’s annual Dairy Products Summary shows total cheese production rose nine-tenths of a percent over 2022 to 14.2 billion pounds.  Production of Italian cheese varieties fells eight-tenths of a percent to 5.85 billion pounds while American type cheeses went up three percent to 5.84 billion pounds.  Wisconsin led the nation in both cheese categories with over 28% of the Italian and 18% of the American cheese production.

Butter production rose 2.7% from 2022 to 2023 to 2.12 billion pounds.  California leads the nation in with 32.2% of butter production.

Whey production rose 2.5% year-over-year with 938 million pounds produced.  Whey protien concentrate production was up 11.3% to 502 million pounds.  Lactose production fell six-tenths of a percent to 1.11 billion pounds.

Frozen yogurt and lowfat ice cream saw a gain in production last year.  The 2023 total for frozen yogurt was up 11.1% to 42.4 million gallons.  Lowfat ice cream production was up 1.2% to 451 million gallons.

Sherbet production dropped almost 15% at 27.9 million gallons, and regular ice cream was down 8.2% to 849 million gallons but still outselling lowfat ice cream.

USDA says there were 94 butter plants and 518 cheese plants in the U.S. in 2023.