Feed rations fed by US dairy producers.

Feed rations used by US dairy producers are estimated using data from the USDA Agricultural Resource Management Survey. The 2016 dairy version of the survey was used, in which 955 respondents fully responded on feed usage. Surveyed farms milked ≥10 cows and were located in dairy states that together produced 96.5% of milk in the United States. Average feedstuff usage is estimated at the national level, as well as regional, production system, and farm size category levels. Significance of differences in feedstuff usage among the categories are determined using t-tests derived using the delete-a-group jackknife procedure. Results are compared with published university feed cost estimates. Differences in feedstuff usage are found by region, production system, and farm size categories.