Description: This chart shows the percent of milk production by region for 1950, 1980, and 1999. Though production in the Traditional Dairy Belt is down from its peak in 1980, the Traditional Dairy Belt remains as important in 1999 as it did in 1950. The chart also shows the considerable growth of the Industrial Dairy States over the past fifty years. Although the Traditional Dairy Belt's share of total U.S. milk output has declined in recent decades, over the long run most of the growth in the role of the Industrial Dairy States has come at the expense of output in the Other Midwestern and Other States.

Source: The data come from published statistics compiled by the Wisconsin Agricultural Statistics Service (WASS), a division of the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection. Most data are available in an annual WASS publication titled "Dairy Facts". For more recent data, visit their web site at: http://www.nass.usda.gov/wi/.