The numbers are a bit fuzzy, though, because of California joining the Federal Order system at the end of last year.

“Producer milk in 2019 for all 11 Federal Orders combined totaled 156.6 billion pounds, up from 141.7 billion pounds in 2018,” report the economists. “However, removing the producer milk from California, the 2019 total would have been 3.9% below 2018.”

The good news is the milk prices rebounded nearly $2 last year. “The weighted average uniform price for all Federal Orders combined for 2019 was $17.35/cwt, up from $15.51 in 2018,” say the economists.

Following is the Class I utilization rate for all Federal Orders, ranked from highest to lowest utilization:

Federal Order – Class I utilization

Florida – 83.3%

Appalachia – 70.3

Southeast – 70.1

Mideast – 34.6

Southwest – 32.1

Northeast – 31.0

Central – 30.2

Arizona – 25.6

California – 21.9

Pacific Northwest – 20.3

Upper Midwest – 8.4