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In this Issue:

•  #Winter Wheat
•  #Maple
•  #New York Cheese
•  #Farm Labor
•  #Prices Received
•  #Meat Animals (Including Production, Disposition and Income)
•  #Dairy
•  #Poultry

Production  of  winter  wheat  in  New  York  is  forecast  at  6.00  million bushels,  down  9  percent  from  May  1,  and  19  percent  below  last  year.   Area  for  grain  harvest  is  unchanged  from  May  1  at  120,000   acres.   Yields  are  now  expected  to  average  50.0  bushels  per  acre,  down  5.0  bushels  from  the  May  1  forecast  and  3.0  bushels  below  last  year.

New York maple syrup production was the lowest since 1993. This was even lower than 1998 when the disastrous ice storm struck the northern area of the state and damaged the sugar bush. Production of New York maple syrup is estimated at 193,000 gallons, 8 percent below the 210,000 gallons produced in 2000 according to the New York Agricultural Statistics Service. The number of taps, 1.16 million, was down 7 percent from a year earlier. Yields of syrup produced per tap averaged 0.166 gallons. The value of this year's syrup is projected at $5.02 million, down 18 percent from the revised 2000 value of $6.09 million. New York ranks third in maple syrup production behind Vermont and Maine.

This season, a series of late winter snowstorms dumped over six feet of snow over northern regions of the state. High winds during the storm caused limbs to fall and damaged sap and vacuum lines. Snow depths prevented timely repair. Recurring storms buried functioning sap lines in the snow and froze them. The snow blanket prevented thawing. This resulted in a reduced number of taps and low yields up north. Some producers also think the deep snow around the base of the trees may have affected the sap flows. However in other regions of the state, weather was more conducive to syrup making. Good to excellent conditions pushed production to between normal and above normal levels. This helped offset the low production in the north. The 2001 sugaring season averaged 28 days in length, one day longer than last year and 4 days shorter than the ten year average. Statewide the average dates of the season were March 11 through April 7.

Sap was average for sweetness, requiring an average of 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. Syrup quality was 35 percent light, 51 percent medium and 14 percent dark.

Total cheese production in New York, excluding cottage cheese, was a record high 728 million pounds in 2000, up 7 percent from the previous record set a year earlier. Italian cheese, which accounted for 57 percent of New York's total cheese output, was up 4 percent; mozzarella production was up 6 percent.

Nationally, total cheese output for 2000 was 8.25 billion pounds (excluding cottage cheese), up 5 percent from a year earlier. Wisconsin remained the leading state with 27 percent of the total, followed by California (18 percent), New York (9 percent), and Minnesota (8 percent).

Prices received by New York farmers during May for selected commodities were mostly lower compared with a month earlier. Prices for corn, oats, soybeans, hay, apples, and eggs declined while prices for wheat and milk increased. Corn averaged $2.32 per bushel, down 7 cents from April. Wheat, at $2.42 per bushel, was up 22 cents from the previous month.

New York dairy farmers received an average of $16.10 per hundredweight of milk sold during May, an increase of 70 cents from the previous month and $3.30 above last May. At the National level, the All Farm Products Index of Prices Received by U.S. Farmers was 108 based on 1990-92=100, up 2 points from the April index.

New York dairy herds produced 1.03 billion pounds of milk during May, down 2.5 percent from May 2000. A decrease in the number of milk cows was the cause of the decline. The number of milk cows at 673,000 head was down 17,000 head from the previous May. Milk per cow averaged 1,530 pounds, unchanged from May 2000.

Milk production in the 20 major states during May totaled 12.6 billion pounds, down 1.1 percent from production in these same states during May 2000.  Production per cow averaged 1,629 pounds for May, 7 pounds below May 2000.  The number of cows on farms in the 20 major states was 7.74 million head, 55,000 head less than May 2000.

Egg production on farms across New York State in April totaled 90 million eggs, down 2 percent, from a year earlier. An increase in the number of layers was more than offset by a lower rate of lay. Only 2.5 percent of the laying flock has completed forced molt.

Laying flocks in the United States produced 7.09 billion eggs during April 2001, up 1 percent from the 7.01 billion produced a year ago. An indication of future egg supply, chicks hatched in the U.S. during April for the purpose of egg production totaled 42 million, up 14 percent from a year earlier.

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