April DMC Margin Up Almost a Dollar over March
June 2, 2026
The April margin under USDA’s Margin Coverage Program was $10.54/cwt, $0.97/cwt higher than the month before and marking the second consecutive month this year for which the Program generated no payment at any coverage level. The higher margin was driven by a $1.10/cwt increase in the all-milk price from March and a rise of $0.13/cwt of milk in the April DMC feed cost formula, driven almost equally by small increases in the formula’s three feed components.
At the end of May, the DMC Decision Tool on the USDA website projected there would be no other DMC payments this year other than a possible small one for August. That forecast for the remaining eight months of the year showed a somewhat unusual two-peaked structure for the monthly DMC margins, hitting peaks just above $11.00/cwt in both May and November, with an interim trough of $9.70/cwt in August, and averaging $10.05/cwt for the year.
