=========================================================== New England Agricultural Statistics - - - a field office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service United States Department of Agriculture Aubrey R. Davis, Director Phone: (603) 224-9639 22 Bridge St, 3rd Floor Fax: (603) 225-1434 PO Box 1444 Internet: http://www.usda.gov/nass/ Concord, NH 03302-1444 E-Mail: nass.nh@nass.usda.gov =========================================================== MARCH AG REVIEW March 24, 2005 The following is an abbreviated version of the report. The entire document is available as a PDF file on the Internet through: http://www.nass.usda.gov/nh/ =========================================================== Volume 25, Number 3 March 24, 2005 A special "THANK YOU" goes to New England producers and agri-businesses who have helped us by completing surveys via mail, telephone or personal interviews. This issue contains the results of monthly and quarterly surveys including the Milk Production, Layer and Egg Production, Potato Stocks and Prices, Bee and Honey, and Trout. In This Issue Bee and Honey Chickens: Layers and Eggs Dairy Products Milk: Production and Price Potatoes: Stocks and Prices Trout POTATO STOCKS: Maine potato stocks on hand March 1, 2005 totaled 9.4 million cwt (hundredweight), six percent above 2004's March 1 holdings. Disappearance to March 1 in the State totaled 9.8 million cwt, compared with 8.1 million cwt moved a year earlier. Storage on March 1 accounted for 49 percent of Maine's total production, and equals the previous five- year average of 49 percent. The 15 major potato States held 168 million cwt of potatoes in storage March 1, 2005, up one percent from last year and two percent above 2003. Potatoes in storage account for 42 percent of the 2004 fall storage States' production, one percentage point above last year. Disappearance of 235 million cwt of potatoes is down one percent from last year and three percent below two years ago. Shrink and loss, at 24.6 million cwt so far this season, is up nine percent from last year and ten percent above the same date in 2003. Processors in the nine major States used 119 million cwt of potatoes this season, down one percent from a year ago and five percent below two years ago. Dehydrating usage accounts for 23.7 million cwt of the total processing, down 9 percent from last year and 15 percent below the same date in 2003. HONEY: In 2004, New England honey production from producers with five or more colonies totaled 1.0 million pounds, a decrease of 14 percent from 2003. Yields from New England's 20,800 colonies producing honey averaged 49 lbs in 2004, eight percent lower than the 2003 average yield. Total value of production across all six states was $2.0 million, down 17 percent from the previous year. MILK PRODUCTION: Milk production in Vermont during February 2005 totaled 204 million pounds. There were an estimated 143,000 milk cows on Vermont farms during February unchanged from January. Milk production per cow averaged 1,430 pounds. Milk production in the 23 major milk-producing States during February 2004 totaled 12.2 billion pounds. The number of milk cows on farms totaled 8.1 million head. Milk production per cow averaged 1,516 pounds for February. TROUT: In 2004, the value of trout sold in Connecticut, Maine, and Massachusetts totaled $935,000, one percent below the value from the previous year. In the three New England States during 2004, there were 19 producers selling trout and a total of 16 hatcheries distributing trout for restoration or conservation purposes. In Maine, 1.1 million fish were distributed during 2004, with weight totaling an estimated 294,000 pounds. Nationwide, the 2004 value of trout sold, excluding eggs, was $63.9 million, seven percent above the previous year. An additional $4.8 million was generated from trout egg sales nationwide. The 2004 value of distributed fish was $62.8 million across the Nation, with eggs valued at an additional $1.9 million. The complete Trout Production report is available on the Internet and includes more information about eggs, size of fish, and losses, as well as separate tables for percent sold by point of first sale. This is a monthly summary of New England agricultural statistics taken from nationwide reports issued by USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service. All National reports and State newsletters are available on the Internet at: http://www.usda.gov/nass/. National reports can be ordered by calling 1-800-999-6779. How can you get these reports electronically? * For free National e-mail reports, send a message to: usda-reports@usda.mannlib.cornell.edu and in the body of the message, type: lists * For free State newsletters, such as this, send a message to: listserv@newsbox.usda.gov and in the body , type: subscribe usda-new-eng-all-reports OR for a list of all available reports, type lists in the body. **************************end of file****************************