June 24, 2022: July is Ice Cream Month

There is still about one week of June Dairy month left, but thanks to President Ronald Reagan, dairy months aren’t over yet. In 1984, Senator Walter Huddleston of Kentucky and Representative  Kika de la Garza of Texas introduced a joint resolution that proclaimed the month of July 1984 as “National Ice Cream Month” and July…

June 17, 2022: June Dairy Month

June 2022 marks the 86th year that the annual June Dairy Month has taken place. June Dairy Month has an interesting history. It was actually started by a group of retail stores in 1937 in an  attempt to help promote and stabilize the market in what was then a time of peak milk production that…

June 10, 2022: High Dairy Product Prices

At $27.10 per cwt, the U.S. all-milk price hit a record high in April for the second month in a row. This is $1.20 more than March’s U.S. all-milk price at $25.90 per cwt which had eclipsed the  previous record of $25.70 set in September 2014. Suppressed milk production growth across the world is keeping…

June 3, 2022: Cream Supply and Butter Stocks

With the Spring Flush over in parts of the country and nearing the end in others, cream supplies are tighter than normal for this time of year. Production declines caused by year-over-year (YOY)  reductions in cow numbers and stagnating per cow output, coupled with warmer temperatures across the country, have further limited milk production and…

May 27, 2022: May

U.S. milk production has declined year-over-year (YOY) every month this year mainly driven by YOY decreases in cow numbers. National milk production per cow has remained stagnate YOY  most of the year. With warmer weather coming as summer approaches, it will be interesting to see what the national milk production trend will be for the…

May 20, 2022: Class IV Price Cooling Off?

Class IV milk price has increased month over month since Aug. 2021, surpassing Class III milk price in November 2021. For the third straight month, the April Class IV price, announced on May 4, set an all-time high at $25.31 per cwt. Since February, the spread between Class III and IV has been declining. The…

May 13, 2022: Early Spring Crop Progress

It seems to me that Southcentral Pennsylvania has been cooler this year than the previous three springs that I have been here. The latest USDA Crop Progress report published May 9 appears to  confirm my personal observations. Spring planting of corn and soybeans is well behind last year and the 5-year average (2017-2021). Only the…

May 6, 2022: Inflation

Inflation has been a common topic lately. It seems like every other article I see references inflation and is usually tied to rising food prices. During last week’s Protecting Your Profits webinar, Sam  Miller, Managing Director of Agriculture Banking at BMO Harris Bank, talked about what is currently driving inflation and how that is affecting…

April 29, 2022: April

The arrival of spring always initiates the Spring Flush each year. Although we are currently in the midst of the Spring Flush, total milk production across the country through March is declining  compared to last year. Due to several factors, milk futures prices seem to have stagnated or declined somewhat. As a result, Class III…

April 22, 20222: Butter

The amount of fat in the American diet and its effects on health have been hotly contested since the 1970s with fat from red meats to dairy products considered villains to healthy diets. However,  research conducted over the last decade or more has begun to paint a different picture. Current research shows that fat, including…