Honey Production Down In Wisconsin
Sunday, March 18th, 2018 -- 9:48 AM
For the second consecutive year, honey production from producers with five or more colonies in Wisconsin fell compared to the year previous.According to the Wisconsin Ag Connection, the state's agriculture department reports that output totaled 2.97 million pounds in 2017, an 11-percent decrease from the 2016 harvest year. According to the USDA, the number of honey producing colonies in the state dropped by 1,000 colonies to 53,000 last year. This number does not include producers with fewer than five colonies or producers who did not harvest a crop. Yield per colony in the Badger State averaged 56 pounds, down from 62 pounds per colony in 2016. Wisconsin ranked 15th in the U.S. in honey production during the past season. As of mid-December, producer honey stocks in Wisconsin, excluding stocks under government loan programs, were 683 thousand pounds, a 43 percent decrease from 2016. The state's 2017 honey crop was valued at $8.22 million, down eight percent from the previous year's $8.94 million.
The average price per pound for all marketing channels in Wisconsin was $2.77, up 10 cents from 2016. Nationally, production from producers with five or more colonies totaled 148 million pounds, down nine percent from 2016. There were 2.67 million colonies producing honey in the U.S. last year, down four percent from a year earlier.
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