FarmIssues.com Media Resource Centre
| Facts & Figures | Dairy Basics | Dictionary | About Dairy Cattle - Who to Call |

Facts and Figures About the Dairy Industry

In General:

  • Provincial milk production in 2007 was 2.5 billion litres of milk.
  • The farmgate value of milk from Ontario’s dairy farms is about $1.6 billion annually and accounts for about 19 per cent of the province’s agricultural production.
  • Licensed dairy farms in Ontario as of March 2008: 5,600
  • Average age of operator: 47
  • Average number of cows in milking herd: 54
  • Number of dairy cows in Ontario in 2003: 360,000 milking cows plus 200,000 heifers over one year old.
  • As of 2007, DFO was supplying milk to 72 processing plants.

Processors:
Ontario’s production of dairy products (in thousand kilograms) (March 2008):

  • Butter 21, 683
  • Ice Cream 212, 818 
  • Cheddar Cheese 49, 388 
  • Yogurt 58,124
  • Other Cheese 73, 004
  • Skim Milk Powder 28, 010 

Provincial share of Canadian market (2007):

  • Newfoundland 0.8 per cent
  • Prince Edward Island 1.3 per cent
  • Nova Scotia 2.2 per cent
  • New Brunswick 1.7 per cent
  • Quebec 37.8 per cent
  • Ontario 32.9 per cent
  • Manitoba 3.9 per cent
  • Saskatchewan 2.8 per cent
  • Alberta 8.2 per cent
  • British Columbia 8.2 per cent

Top 10 milk producing areas of Ontario (2004-2005 dairy year):

  • Perth County 434 million litres
  • Welliington County 390 million litres
  • Oxford County 379 million litres
  • Waterloo County 279 million litres
  • Bruce County 201 million litres
  • Huron County 200 million litres
  • Prescott County 193 million litres
  • Dundas County 189 million litres
  • Grey County 163 million litres
  • Russell County 149 million litres
Dairy Cows Distribution in Canada
Dairy Cows Distribution in Canada