The average number of milking cows on a Canadian dairy farm was 107 in 2025. It is most common, however, to find between 50 and 99 milking cows in a herd (plus calves, heifers and dry cows).
The 2024 statistics for the simple average U.S. herd was 377 milking cows.
Do large farms produce more of the milk on the market?
In Canada
Small and medium-sized farms to play a large role in producing milk in Canada. In fact, 89% of Canadian dairy farms have fewer than 200 milking cows. These farms produce most of the milk in Canada – about two-thirds. The rest of the milk is produced by farms with more than 200 cows. We can count the number Canadian dairy farms have more than 1,000 cows on our hands (0.2% of farms).
In the United States
While small family farms make up a large proportion of all U.S. dairy farms, most milk in the U.S. is produced by a relatively small number of large farms.
In fact, 70% of U.S. dairy farms have fewer than 200 cows, yet these farms produce about 10% of the country’s milk. While only 8.4% of U.S. farms have more than 1,000 cows, they produce two-thirds of the milk in that country. (2022 data)
Read more: dairyfarmersofcanada.ca/en/our-commitments/animal-care/how-many-cows-farms-sizes
