MADISON, Wis. — Positive signs are beginning to emerge in the dairy industries in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

For the past few months, milk production in the two states has trailed the pace from the comparable period a year ago by a few percentage points. However, that might be changing.

Wisconsin produced 2.21 billion pounds of milk last month. That’s a 1 percent improvement compared to August 2010.

And in Minnesota, dairy farmers harvested 716 million pounds last month. That’s 5 percent worse than in the previous year, but it narrows the gap from the 7 percent decline reported in July.

Overall, milk production nationwide was up 2 percent to 15.3 billion pounds. As usual, California led the way with 3.5 billion pounds, and Wisconsin remains solidly in second place.