May’s Dairy Margin Coverage margin was announced at $10.52 per hundredweight (cwt), $1.02 over the $9.50 maximum coverage level and did not trigger indemnities at any coverage level. May’s margin was up 92 cents per cwt from April’s margin. Year-over-year, May’s margin shot up from 2023 at $4.83 per cwt, a $5.69 increase. May 2024’s…
Total milk production in the US is still slipping year over year, with the latest USDA Milk Production report showing May’s milk production down 0.9 percent year-over-year to 19.7 billion pounds. Cow numbers were down 68,000 head from a year ago to 9.35 million head, up 5,000 head from April. Milk production per cow is…
Butter prices on the Global Dairy Trade auction reached an all-time high this week, increasing 6.2 percent to reach $7,350 per metric ton, the highest price since the GDT began eleven years ago. The average dairy price index on the GDT was still down 0.5 percent from the last session, dropping to $3,893 per metric…
USDA’s latest Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report forecasts the US 2024-25 corn crop at 14.86 million bushels, with an average yield of 181 bushels per acre. The season average price of corn is expected to be about $4.40 per bushel, unchanged from last month’s report. USDA increased the soybean crop projections slightly, increasing ending…
USDA announced the May Class III milk price at $18.55 per hundredweight, up $3.50 from April and $2.24 above a year ago levels. The Class IV price was announced at $20.50 per cwt., up 39 cents from last month and $2.40 above year ago levels. Class III milk prices rebounded this past week, with June…
USDA’s Cold Storage Report shows butter stocks building. Butter inventories were at 361.3 million pounds as of April 30, up 44 million pounds from March to April, representing the largest March-to-April build up since 2020. Butter stocks have been growing at above-average levels in every month this year, with April stocks up 9 percent from…
Total milk production in the US was down again in April, falling 0.4 percent from a year ago to 19.135 billion pounds, the lowest US production level in April since 2020. On the positive side, though, production per cow was up 9 pounds to 2,049 pounds per cow. The number of milk cows in the…
USDA’s latest World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report shows domestic supplies of both corn and soybeans increasing. Estimates are that the US will produce 14.86 billion bushels of corn this year, down 3.1 percent from last production season. However, with higher beginning stocks, the 2024-2025 corn supply is expected to increase 1.1 percent form…
Dairy exports continued their downward trend from 2023 in the first quarter of 2024. Total dairy exports declined year over year in March, with total dairy export volumes dropping 4.5 percent to 527 million pounds, while the value of those exports fell 9.2 percent to $740 million. The year-over-year decline in March came on the…
USDA’s Cold Storage Report, released last week, shows stocks of both butter and cheese increasing month over month. Butter stocks were up six percent from a month ago and 2 percent from a year ago to 316.63 million pounds. The increase in butter stocks is slightly higher than the five-year average build up for February…
