Given its size, scope and geography, there are a range of issues facing the California dairy community. With attention spread across near-term financial challenges to longer-term environmental regulations, the state’s dairy producers are apprehensive at the start of 2023.

Intermingled with large population centers, dairy producers, processors and marketers in the Northeast and New England must stay in tune with local demands and global conditions. That results in a medley of opportunities and concerns.

A numerical snapshot of Wisconsin shows the state averaged about 1.27 million dairy cows in 2022, producing almost 31.9 billion pounds of milk. Both changed little from the year before.

Geographically, the Central Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) stretches across Oklahoma and Kansas, large portions of Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska, and into counties in Minnesota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

Milk producers and handlers supplying the Appalachian Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) cover five states: Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Like their neighbors to the south, they share similar concerns and diverse outlooks.

Running through the heart of the north-central U.S. and bordering three of the nation’s 24 major dairy states, Interstate 29 (I-29) is a strong vein from which to measure the pulse of the industry.

Beyond sharing Great Lakes’ shorelines, dairy producers in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio have a lot in common. Most were aided by the wave of higher milk prices in 2022, putting them in their best financial positions in years.

Milk produced and marketed in the 11 states in the southeastern U.S. is pooled on the Appalachian, Southeast and Florida Federal Milk Marketing Orders (FMMOs).