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Shrinking U.S. Milk Output Poised to Drop More, Dairy Group Says

Falling cow, milk output numbers to last well into 2022

A worker pushes a wheelbarrow past cows at a dairy farm in New York.

A worker pushes a wheelbarrow past cows at a dairy farm in New York.

Photographer: Angus Mordant/Bloomberg

Dwindling U.S. milk output isn’t going to recover any time soon, according to an industry group, signaling dairy inflation may be here to stay.

There have been pullbacks recently in the number of cows in U.S. herds, and consequently in milk production. The reductions have been “dramatic,” and futures markets are indicating that the trend will last “well into 2022,” the Arlington, Virginia-based National Milk Producers Federation said in a Jan. 20 report.