I was trying to get caught up on the stack of dairy management publications sitting on my desk and came across an article that compared the per capita consumption in pounds of some selected dairy products from 1980 through 2013.  Which products do you think have lost ground in terms of consumption and which have gained?

The biggest losers are fluid milk which declined from 232.8 lbs. per capita in 1980 to 164.2 lbs. in 2013, ice cream which declined from 26.2 lbs. to 18.7 lbs. and cottage cheese which declined from 4.6 to 2.1lbs. per capita.  The largest increases in consumption between 1980 and 2013 in lbs. per capita are yogurt, cheese, butter and cream.  Yogurt had a 645% increase from 2.0 to 14.9 lbs., cheese increased an impressive 140% from 14.2 lbs. to 33.5 lbs., cream increased from 5.2 to10.8 lbs. and butter increased from 4.7 to 5.5 lbs. per capita.

Rory Lewandowski is an OSU Extension Agriculture & Natural Resources educator and may be reached at 330-264-8722.