May DMC Margin Gains Eight Cents Over April
July 7, 2026
The May margin under USDA’s Margin Coverage Program was $10.62/cwt, $0.08/cwt higher than the month before and marking the third consecutive month this year for which the program generated no payment at any coverage level.
The higher margin was driven by a $0.50/cwt increase in the all-milk price from April, to $21.30/cwt, which was mostly offset by a rise of $0.42/cwt of milk in the May DMC feed cost formula, driven by increases equivalent in the formula to $0.18/cwt of milk in both the corn and the premium alfalfa prices and $0.06/cwt of milk in the soybean meal price.
At the end of June, the DMC Decision Tool on the USDA website projected no other DMC payments this year, other than a possible small one for August. The forecast continues to show a somewhat unusual two-peaked structure for the monthly DMC margins for the remaining seven months of the year, hitting peaks of $11.51/cwt in June, November and December, with an interim trough of $9.75/cwt in August, while averaging $10.25/cwt for the year.
