Milk production is picking up across the country, but not in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

The nation’s dairy farmers produced 15.8 billion pounds of milk in March. That was a 2 percent increase over March of last year. Among a slight decrease, Minnesota producers are struggling to profit. Mower County dairy farmer Eugene Anderson has called the last six to seven years a “rollercoaster.” He says prices have been fluctuating since milk went on the board of trade, and the U.S. may import too much milk to boot. He said he’s heard of Minnesota dairy producers who lost as much as $100,000 last year. And in Minnesota, the trend of losing money or breaking even has persisted for about three years.

The highest rates of improvement were in Texas (7 percent), Idaho (4 percent) and California (3 percent).

Wisconsin produced 2.3 billion pounds last month. While that was 30 million more pounds than the same time last year, it amounts to an increase of just more than 1 percent.

Wisconsin remains No. 2 in the nation behind California, which harvested 3.6 billion pounds.

Minnesota was one of the few states to see a decrease. Farmers there produced 775 million pounds, down 2 percent.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report.