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Higher Percentages Of US Milkfat, Solids Used In Cheese In 2021

In 2021, cheese not only increased its use of both milkfat and skim solids, but it also used a higher percentage of both milkfat and skim solids than in 2020, according to figures released earlier this month by USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS).

Meanwhile, lower volumes of both milkfat and skim solids were used in fluid milk products last year than in 2020, and fluid milk products also used lower percentages of both milkfat and skim solids than in 2020.

For this dairy data set, ERS provides seven tables for the supply and allocation of milkfat and skim solids by product. Those tables include product volumes (2021 production); milkfat and skim solids supply and dairy industry allocation; milkfat and skim solids percentage of total supply by product; and milkfat and skim solids content of products.

In 2021, the total US milkfat supply was a record 9.1 billion pounds, up from 8.9 billion pounds in 2020. That supply includes the milkfat of domestic milk production plus the milkfat of imported dairy products assumed to be used as ingredients in domestically produced dairy products.

Cheese (other than cottage cheese) used 3.84 billion pounds of milkfat in 2020, up 137.1 million pounds from 2020.

The last time the volume of milkfat used to make cheese declined was in 2003, when milkfat use in cheese of 2.4 billion pounds was down almost 5.0 million pounds from 2002.

Last year, cheese used 42.1 percent of the total milkfat supply, up from 41.7 percent in 2020 but down from 42.5 percent in 2019. Cheese has now used more than 40 percent of the US milkfat supply every year since 2009, including a record high of 42.8 percent in 2018.

The milkfat content of cheese last year averaged 27.99 percent, up from 27.94 percent in 2020 and the highest average milkfat content for cheese since 2009, when it was 28.12 percent. It had reached a recent low of 27.84 percent in 2016.

Butter continued to be the second-largest user of milkfat in 2021, although the 1.67 billion pounds of milkfat that was used to produce butter was down almost 60 million pounds from 2020. More than 1.5 billion pounds of milkfat has been used to produce butter every year since 2017.

As recently as 2001, less than 1.0 billion pounds of milkfat was used to make butter.

In 2021, butter used 18.3 percent of the US milkfat supply, down from 19.5 percent in 2020 and the lowest percentage since 2017’s 17.9 percent. As recently as 2003, less than 16.0 percent of the US milkfat supply was used to produce butter.

Last year, fluid beverage milk products used 962.0 million pounds of milkfat, down 42.5 million pounds from 2020 and the lowest volume of milkfat used in fluid milk products since 2015, when the milk volume totaled 952.9 mil-

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