Tag: milk prices
Uncertainty Clouds Milk Price Outlook
Inflation Taking a Toll on Domestic Dairy Consumption
Rising Input Costs Keep Tight Lid on Milk Production Growth
Milk Pricing Proposals Reviewed by NMPF Board at June Meeting
NMPF’s Board of Directors took additional steps toward modernizing the federal milk pricing system at their meeting June 7-8 in Arlington, VA.
The board reviewed and provided feedback on a series of recommended improvements generated by a member task force of Federal Milk Marketing Order experts.
The task force formed four committees earlier this year to assess specific areas in need of modernization, including Milk Composition; Dairy Products and Product Specifications; Make Allowances; and Class I Pricing. The task force unanimously recommended 10 proposals to the Economic Policy Committee in those four areas, which now are being shared more broadly with NMPF membership and other stakeholders for further discussion and refinement. The goal to create a single package of recommendations for final approval by the full Board of Directors later this year.
The Board also welcomed two new directors: Joe Coote from Darigold/Northwest Dairy Association and Dan Rosen from Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery.
Dairy Market Report
U.S. Monthly Average Milk Price in April Tops March Record
USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) reported Tuesday the U.S. average all-milk price was $27.10/cwt, the second straight month of a record high all-milk price and shattering the previous record set in March.
The March milk price, which was not revised in the recent announcement, was $25.90/cwt. That was 20 cents/cwt higher than the previous record, in September 2014, and only the fourth time the monthly milk price has been above $25.00/cwt.
Dairy futures prices as of the end of May indicated that the monthly all-milk price would stay in the range of April’s price through this fall.
USDA reported the April DMC margin was $12.29/cwt, a gain of $0.74/cwt over the margin for March. The April DMC feed cost rose $0.46/cwt, driven entirely by a higher corn price, while the soybean meal price declined, and the premium alfalfa price showed a small increase.
Dairy Market Report – May 2022
NMPF’s Bjerga on the Dairy Economy, FMMO Modernization and Fake Milk
NMPF Senior Vice President for Communications, Alan Bjerga, discusses dairy issues ranging from pricing to fake milk with KASM radio of Albany, MN, at the National Association of Farm Broadcasters Issues Forum in Washington, DC. Record milk prices are coming with higher costs as well; meanwhile, NMPF is positioned to lead on Federal Milk Marketing Order modernization, a farmer-led process.
Dairy Market Report – April 2022
Dairy Market Report – March 2022
Surging Milk Price Boosts DMC Margin
The January margin under the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program rose just over $2/cwt to $11.54/cwt, fueled by the third-highest ever jump in the U.S. average all-milk price.
A spectacular $2.40 per hundredweight one-month jump in the U.S. average all-milk price in January overpowered a DMC feed-cost calculation that rose only 39 cents in the same period. The monthly milk price gain has only been surpassed in April 2004, when it rose by $2.60/cwt, and June 2020, when it leaped by $4.50 /cwt as part of a price sharp recovery from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. That jump returned the price to barely higher than it had been just three months earlier; by contrast, the recent spike capped a series of gains that have pushed the price up by $6.50/cwt over five months.
January’s all-milk price has only been surpassed in five months, all in 2014. Late February dairy and grain futures indicate that feed costs will tend to track milk prices over the next several months to keep the margin from rising much above its January level.
As of February 28, the 2021 DMC program has seen record payments of nearly $1.2 billion to 18,952 enrolled operations, an average of $62,773 per enrolled operation. NMPF urges all dairy farmers who haven’t yet joined DMC to do so. The deadline to sign up for the 2022 DMC program has been extended to March 25. NMPF has a page of resources here for those who may have questions about the program.
