readme.md

Datasets

milkcow_facts.csv
milk_facts.csv
milk_products_facts.csv
clean_cheese.csv
state_milk_production.csv

Data this week comes from the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture)! The raw datasets (Excel Sheets) can be found here. There is even more data at the source if you are interested, much of which requires a LOT of fun Excel sheet data munging. Enjoy!

A related NPR article - "Nobody is Moving our Cheese" and Washington Post article - "America's Cheese Stockpile hit an alltime high"".

This week's data was found via the Data is Plural newsletter.

Data Dictionary

• milkcow_facts.csv
• fluid_milk_sales.csv
• milk_products_facts.csv
• clean_cheese.csv
• state_milk_production.csv

The "tame" datasets seen here might require a few gather calls, while some are already pretty tidy. Fluid milk sales, milkcow facts, and state milk production are good ones if you just want to plot, while the milk products and clean cheese allow for some creativity in the data organization steps.

milkcow_facts

variable	class	Description
year	date	Year
avg_milk_cow_number	double	Average number of milk cows
milk_per_cow	double	Average milk production/cow in pounds
milk_production_lbs	double	Total Milk production in pounds
avg_price_milk	double	Average price paid for milk (dollars per pound)
dairy_ration	double	Average price paid for dairy cow rations (dollars per pound)
milk_feed_price_ratio	double	Ratio of average price of milk per dairy cow ration
milk_cow_cost_per_animal	double	Average cost of milk cow per animal (dollars)
milk_volume_to_buy_cow_in_lbs	double	Milk volume required to purchase a cow (pounds)
alfalfa_hay_price	double	Alfalfa hay price received by farmers (tons)
slaughter_cow_price	double	Slaughter cow price (value of meat in dollars per pound)

fluid_milk_sales

variable	class	description
year	date	Year
milk_type	integer	Category of Milk product
pounds	double	Pounds of milk product per year

milk_products_facts

variable	class	description
year	date	Year
fluid_milk	double	Average milk consumption in lbs per person
fluid_yogurt	double	Average yogurt consumption in lbs per person
butter	double	Average butter consumption in lbs per person
cheese_american	double	Average American cheese consumption in lbs per person
cheese_other	double	Average other cheese consumption in lbs per person
cheese_cottage	double	Average cottage cheese consumption in lbs per person
evap_cnd_canned_whole_milk	double	Average evaporated and canned whole milk consumption in lbs per person
evap_cnd_bulk_whole_milk	double	Average evaporated and canned bulk whole milk consumption in lbs per person
evap_cnd_bulk_and_can_skim_milk	double	Average evaporated and canned bulk and can skim milk consumption in lbs per person
frozen_ice_cream_regular	double	Average regular frozen ice cream consumption in lbs per person
frozen_ice_cream_reduced_fat	double	Average reducated fat frozen ice cream consumption in lbs per person
frozen_sherbet	double	Average frozen sherbet consumption in lbs per person
frozen_other	double	Average other frozen milk product consumption in lbs per person
dry_whole_milk	double	Average dry whole milk consumption in lbs per person
dry_nonfat_milk	double	Average dry nonfat milk consumption in lbs per person
dry_buttermilk	double	Average dry buttermilk consumption in lbs per person
dry_whey	double	Average dry whey (milk protein) consumption in lbs per person

clean_cheese

variable	class	description
Year	date	Year
Cheddar	double	Cheddar consumption in lbs per person
American Other	double	American Other consumption in lbs per person
Mozzarella	double	Mozzarella consumption in lbs per person
Italian other	double	Italian other consumption in lbs per person
Swiss	double	Swiss consumption in lbs per person
Brick	double	Brick consumption in lbs per person
Muenster	double	Muenster consumption in lbs per person
Cream and Neufchatel	double	Cream and Neufchatel consumption in lbs per person
Blue	double	Blue consumption in lbs per person
Other Dairy Cheese	double	Other Dairy Cheese consumption in lbs per person
Processed Cheese	double	Processed Cheese consumption in lbs per person
Foods and spreads	double	Foods and spreads consumption in lbs per person
Total American Chese	double	Total American Chese consumption in lbs per person
Total Italian Cheese	double	Total Italian Cheese consumption in lbs per person
Total Natural Cheese	double	Total Natural Cheese consumption in lbs per person
Total Processed Cheese Products	double	Total Processed Cheese Products consumption in lbs per person

state_milk_production

variable	class	description
region	character	Region of the US
state	character	US State
year	date	Year
milk_produced	double	Pounds of Milk Produced