Many of us breathed a sigh of relief late last week when East Coast dock workers ended their strike and went back to work. They ended the strike after they reached a tentative agreement with port owners on wages. During the strike, grocery stores saw panicked shoppers emptying shelves, while business owners found their supplies…
USDA announced August’s Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) margin at $13.72 per cwt, the highest margin since the program’s inception in 2019. The margin did not trigger indemnities at any coverage level. August’s all-milk price came in at $23.60 per cwt, jumping 80 cents from July’s $22.80. At $23.60 per cwt, August’s all-milk price is the…
If you’re inclined to bury your head in the sand when thinking about milk prices, now might be a good time to come up for air. Milk prices heading into the fourth quarter for both Class III and IV are sitting squarely above $21 per hundredweight, supporting some of the best revenues dairies have seen…
With the recent confirmation of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in California dairy herds, 14 states have been confirmed to have HPAI in dairy herds as of September 6, 2024. Although HPAI has not been identified in Pennsylvania dairy herds, it is important to protect our herds and our operations by remaining vigilant and using…
The National Safety Council always earmarks the third week in September as National Farm Safety and Health Week. The annual promotion was first an initiative by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944 to remind the farm community to prioritize safety. As farm equipment has gotten much larger and farm practices have gotten much more complex,…
July’s DMC Margin came in at $12.33 per hundredweight (cwt), up 67 cents from June. With July’s margin $2.83 above the $9.50 trigger, this makes the fifth consecutive month in program year 2024 where no DMC payments were issued at any coverage level.
Anyone tracking the U.S. dairy industry has undoubtedly heard of the ongoing process of changing the Federal Milk Marketing Orders (FMMO) system. After a year of consideration, 12,000 pages of testimony and 49 days of hearings, the USDA released their recommended decision for Federal Milk Marking Order updates at the beginning of July. The document…
For the first time in a while, we’re talking about strong milk prices AND weak feed costs! In fact, by USDA’s Dairy Margin Coverage math, current futures suggest October margins could hit the highest levels going back to 2014. But that’s just the math on paper. Though every farm’s financial picture is different, profitability should…
According to the US Labor Department’s latest report, the job economy is starting to get weaker. Hiring fell to 114,000 jobs in July, with the unemployment rate increasing to 4.3 percent, the highest since October 2021. Hourly wages are up 3.6 percent year-overyear, the smallest increase since May 2021. The average hourly earnings for all…
June’s DMC margin closed out at $11.66 per hundredweight (cwt), $2.16 per cwt. above the $9.50 coverage level. Like the previous three months, the margin remained high enough to not trigger indemnities. June’s margin jumped $1.14 from May’s margin of $10.52 per cwt. Looking back to program year 2023, there’s an $8.01 increase from June…
