-15-


of total production which was marketed was above the regional average
for Florida, Texas and Tennessee. The proportion of output marketed
was above the United States average only in Florida. The percent of
production marketed in 1960 ranged to a low of 68.6 percent in Alabama.

 Number of Cows and Production per Cow.--Similar trends in
numbers of cows and production per cow have occurred in the United
States and the Southern Region. The United States dairy cow
population increased from 21,503,000 in 1925 to 25,033,00 in 1945
but has declined since (Table 7). The cow population in the ten
states of the Southern Region in 1960 was 2,908,000. This was a
considerable decline from the 4,708,000 reported in 1945. It was
also substantially below the 1925 total of 3,493,000 dairy cows. The
number of cows in Florida has shown a continuous increase from 1925 to
1960. The 195,000 cows on farms in Florida in 1960 were more than two
and one-half times as large as the number in 1925.

 Despite the large reduction in numbers of dairy cows from 1925
 to 1960, the increase in production per cow was more than ample to con-
 tinue increases in total milk production, both in the United States and
 the Southern Region. From 1925 to 1960, annual production per cow in
 the United States rose from 4,218 to 7,004 pounds. Annual production
 per cow in the Southern Region increased from 2,880 to 4,680 pounds.
 The increase was far greater in Florida. Annual output per cow in-
 creased from 2,850 pounds in 1925 to 6,700 pounds in 1960.


 TABLE 7.--Number of Cows on Farms and Production per Cow, United States,
 and Southern Region, 1925-1960

 Number of Cows : Production per Cow: Index of Production:
 SYear. per Cow
 : United: Scuthern: United: Southern: United : Southern.
 :States: Rrgion : States: Region : States: Region :
 Thousands Founds 1925=100
 1925 21,503 3,493 4,218 2,880 100 100
 1930 22,218 3,782 4,508 3,160 107 110
 1935 24,187 4,466 4,184 2,900 99 101
 1940 23,671 4,328 4,622 3,150 110 109

 1945 25,033 4,708 4,787 3,270 113 114
 1950 21,944 4,158 5,314 3,550 126 123
 1955 21,044 3,887 5,842 3,793 138 132
 1960 17,549 2,908 7,004 4,680 166 162

 Source: U. S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Marketing
 Service, Dairy Statistics, Statistical Bulletin No. 218 (Washington,
 D. C.: October 1957). Also, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Statis-
 tical Reporting Service, Crop Reporting Board, Milk Production,
 Disposition and Income 1959-60 (Washington, D. C.: April 1961).