Growing up on the East Coast in the 90s, I ate a lot of cheese. (Mostly American cheese, which is super gross now that I know how to read a food label. But I digress.) I feel like everyone knew about cheese from France, but we didn’t hear all that much about cheese produced in the United States (aside from American cheese).
And when we did hear about cheese produced in America, it pretty much felt like only two states produced any cheese at all – Vermont and Wisconsin. Vermont cheddar (which is in Panera’s decadent mac n cheese) and Wisconsin cheddar were the sorts of cheese that got pulled out for special occasions and fancy dinner parties.
As far as I knew, pretty much no other states even produced dairy.
Well, it turns out Vermont isn’t even in the top 10 dairy-producing states…and Wisconsin, surprisingly, isn’t #1! And hasn’t been for years. Let’s dive right in.
Data and analysis
If you want to jump ahead to the states, feel free to skip right past this section. To make these rankings, I used USDA data on milk production from March 2024 (the most up-to-date data available at the time of publication). While that was sufficient for the rankings all on its own – the headline only promises the state that produces the most milk – I felt this wasn’t quite enough to get a real feel for the density of milk production in each state. So in the chart below, I overlaid that raw milk production data with land mass data by state courtesy of the US Census. I think it’s valuable to know if a state did well in dairy production because it was HUGE – the real tell of a state that’s prioritizing dairy is one that has a high dairy production density (per square mile).
| Rank | State | Milk product (millions of pounds) | Land area (square miles) | Milk production density (pounds per 1,000 square miles) |
| 10 | Washington | 491 | 66,438 | 7.39 |
| 9 | New Mexico | 493 | 121,280 | 4.06 |
| 8 | Pennsylvania | 795 | 44,730 | 17.77 |
| 7 | Minnesota | 829 | 79,605 | 10.41 |
| 6 | Michigan | 959 | 56,591 | 16.94 |
| 5 | New York | 1,260 | 47,111 | 26.75 |
| 4 | Idaho | 1,303 | 82,623 | 15.77 |
| 3 | Texas | 1,364 | 261,194 | 5.22 |
| 2 | Wisconsin | 2,559 | 54,153 | 47.26 |
| 1 | California | 3,360 | 155,813 | 21.56 |
On to the rankings!
#10: Washington
I usually associate Washington state more with Starbucks than milk – although now that I think about it, I could see how those two might go together, coffee is totally better with creamer – but as I dug deeper, I found that Washington has a thriving dairy sector.
In fact, some very recognizable brands hail from Washington – Lucerne, Darigold, and Zoi Greek Yogurt. Washington produces only slightly less milk than #9 in the rankings, even though it has a MUCH smaller land area – so one way to think about it is that they produce almost twice as many pounds of milk per square mile of land as…
#9: New Mexico
Fun fact about New Mexico: It’s actually the fifth-largest state in the Union by land mass! (I guess I always thought Arizona was bigger. Turns out I was wrong!)
Because New Mexico is MUCH bigger than Washington State (and also than most other states on this list), its production density – that is, how many pounds of milk per square mile – ranks right at the bottom, at about 4,065. (Just to give you a sense of the contrast, Washington is produces 7,390, and the densest state – Wisconsin – produces 47,255 pounds of milk per square mile.)
#8: Pennsylvania
My first experience of cheese curds was from Pennsylvania Dutch country, so it doesn’t shock me that Pennsylvania made the list. (Although, given how big of a deal everyone on the East Coast makes about Vermont, you’d think they’d have managed it too!)
Fun fact – Pennsylvania is home to Oregon Dairy. Weird, right?
#7: Minnesota
You’ll find a lot of the upper Northwest in this top 10 list – Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin all made it…a big part of that is longtime culture built around…cheese! While Wisconsin carries the crown (the Cheeseheads from Green Bay, etc.) – the fact of the matter is that all three of these states have done a great deal to encourage their dairy production.
If you’re looking for great cheese in Minnesota, make sure you check out the Redhead Creamery! I took my family there on a roadtrip a few years ago, and their Foenegreek Gouda was just perfection.
#6: Michigan
In addition to producing objectively more cow’s milk than Minnesota, Michigan also has a much greater density of dairymaking per square mile, with Michigan cows producing just under 17,000 pounds per square mile of land. Only 10 counties (out of 83) in Michigan have no dairy farms.
Of course, it’s impossible to talk about dairy production in Michigan without talking about the delicious local invention – pinconning cheese, which is named after the city of Pinconning in Northern Michigan. It’s a great, sharp alternative to cheddar or colby cheese (you can, of course, also get milder varieties – but why would you?), and it’s a big deal in Michigan.
#5: New York
You might assume that, just like #8 Pennsylvania, #9 New Mexico, and #3 Texas, New York’s presence on this list has more to do with land mass than with an actual commitment to dairy production. (I sure did.)
Turns out I was wrong. While New York has the 5th highest total milk production, it actually ranks second in milk production density – 26,745 pounds produced per square mile of land. And in fact, New York ranks first in the country in production of yogurt, sour cream, and cottage cheese.
So – yeah, New York is actually surprisingly “in” to Dairy. Which didn’t stop it getting edged out by, of all states…
#4: Idaho
If seeing Idaho on this list at all – and certainly in the top four dairy-producing states in the country – was surprising to you, you’re not alone. My immediate response was “really?!” and I checked my numbers a couple extra times just to be sure.
The numbers don’t lie.
And as I dug in more, I learned that there’s really more to the story here than you’d ordinarily expect. We all know Idaho potatoes, right? But Idaho is actually home to two major dairy employers – Glanbia (which is the world’s largest manufacturer of American cheese), and another name you’ll definitely recognize – Chobani!
It makes sense that those companies would choose to be headquartered near lots of dairy production, so they chose Idaho!
#3: Texas
This is another “big state with lots of people in it, so naturally some of them are dairy farmers” story. Dairy isn’t a top 10 industry in Texas (the top spot is, not surprisingly, held by the energy sector), and dairy isn’t a big part of the culture any more than it is in, say, Hawaii. Texas is just a whole heck of a lot bigger than Hawaii!
If you look at gallons of milk produced per square mile, Texas is near the bottom of the list, with just 5,222 gallons per square mile – barely edging out New Mexico, and comfortably lower than every other state on this list. They say everything is bigger in Texas, but where dairy’s concerned, that’s just not quite the case!
#2: Wisconsin
Wisconsin – famed for its delicious cheese curds, its signature Wisconsin cheddar, and so much more…
Dairy has infused every part of Wisconsin’s culture. They have the Wisconsin Cheese Festival, the Great Wisconsin Cheese Festival (there is a difference, even if I haven’t quite figured out yet what it is), the Dairy State Cheese and Beer Festival, and of course DairyFest as well. And it’s no wonder that cheese is such a ubiquitous part of Wisconsin’s culture – 23% of all dairy farms in the US are located in Wisconsin, and the dairy industry produces $45.6 billion in economic impacts annually – more than Florida citrus + Idaho potatoes combined. (You can read more about it here.) That’s a whole lotta cheddar!
But, again, surprisingly – with all of this in mind, Wisconsin is in fact NOT the biggest dairy producer in the United States. (Although if you look at it on a per capita basis, they certainly produce the most milk in the country – 47,255 gallons of milk per square mile of land in the state.)
Which brings us to our winner…
#1: California
Probably not a shocker. California is a huge state, it’s not as hot as Texas, it’s got a lot of people and a lot of space.
California stands out because Monterey Jack cheese was invented there more than 200 years ago – long before California was even thinking about becoming a state. (In fact, California was still a possession of Mexico at the time. But I digress.)
Interestingly, California ranks third in our measure of dairy production density, with 21,564 pounds of milk produced per square mile (or just a little less than New York’s 26,745 – of course, everyone’s well behind Wisconsin).
California is not only the #1 producer of milk, it’s also the United States’ largest producer of butter and ice cream. (And second in cheese and yogurt production – to Wisconsin.)
If you’ve ever had Coolhaus ice cream, you know just how good California dairy products can be!
So make sure you salute the winner with a glass of ice-cold milk! (Or a pint of ice cream.)
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