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April 11, 2025: Dairy Exports Soft in February

Just ahead of President Trump’s April 2 announcement about reciprocal tariffs on many nations’ products, U.S. Dairy Export Council announced that U.S. dairy export volumes fell 5% in February, dropping 9,587 metric tons to 174,175 metric tons. While several categories saw growth in February, nonfat dry milk and skim milk powder shipments overseas fell 26%…

April 4, 2025: February DMC Margin and Forecasts

On the heels of the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) deadline that closed on March 31st, the USDA announced the February 2025 margin at $13.12 per hundredweight (cwt).

March 28, 2025: Let’s Talk About Butterfat

Over the past few years, we’ve seen an incredible increase in butterfat tests at the farm level, providing yet another reason why to not bet against the U.S. dairy farmer. By January 2025, average U.S. butterfat tests hit 4.46% – up from 4.35% in January 2024 and 4.03% in January 2020. Combined with the 0.1%…

March 21, 2025: USDA DMC Program Enrollment Deadline Fast Approaching

The USDA’s Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) enrollment period for program year 2025 will close on Monday, March 31. January 2025’s margin was announced at the end of February at $13.85 per cwt., which is above the highest tier one coverage level of $9.50. February’s margin will be announced on March 31.

March 14, 2025: On Developing Your Workforce

USDA recently released its 2024 end-of-year projections on dairy farm numbers across the US. The average dairy farm in the US today has 377 mature dairy cows, while the average dairy farm in Pennsylvania has about 96 mature dairy cows. Although Pennsylvania’s dairy farms are still much smaller than in other regions of the US,…

March 7, 2025: Markets and Milk Production

Looking at the recent Milk Production report, we saw the U.S. milk supply dropped 0.2% from 2023’s 226.3 to 225.9 billion pounds for 2024. Milk production peaked in March 2024, when it totaled 19.7 billion pounds that month. Production reached its lowest for 2024 in November at 18.0 billion pounds. From 2015 to 2025, U.S….

February 28, 2025: Navigating Appropriate Medicine Usage on Farms

In today’s dairy industry, keeping cows healthy and productive involves so many facets from cow comfort to proper nutrition to disease prevention and treatment. As a producer establishes medication protocols with their veterinarian and sets up their on-farm inventory, it is important to review the different regulations about medications available for use on farms.

February 21, 2025: Cheese Trade, Production, and Markets

U.S. cheese exporters finished 2024 with a bang. A total of 97 million pounds of cheese shipped abroad, up 21% year-over-year. That capped off an already record-setting performance with outbound cheese shipments reaching a record 1.125 billion pounds, up 18% (+170 million pounds) year-over-year. Sales to Mexico gave U.S. exports a big boost in 2024…

February 14, 2025: On Workforce Trends

Anyone who has looked for qualified candidates to fill roles in your dairy business may have felt like that is a harder task than it was even just five years ago. That feeling is very real. Since the pandemic, worker expectations and needs have shifted. There is also more competition with higher pay from other…

February 7, 2025: January Cattle Inventory

Looking at the January 2025 USDA Cattle Inventory report, it confirms a continual decline in the overall U.S. cattle and calf inventories. All U.S. cattle and calf numbers were down 1% year over year to 86.7 million head.