Ever since I can remember, Fall has always been my favorite time of year. I grew up in Wilkes County, North Carolina, at the foot a small mountain range called the Brushy Mountains, which is part of the larger Blue Ridge Mountains that stretch from Georgia to South Central Pennsylvania. There are several reasons why…
After a brief one-month decline in national milk production in May, June and July, milk production returned to positive year-over-year growth with May milk production up 0.5% and July milk production up 1.5% compared with a year ago. Increased milk production, coupled with an overall decrease in dairy product sales, translates to growing dairy product…
What a crazy year it has been so far! Volatility has been rough to deal with. April and May brought the lowest prices in over 10 years, followed by a record $8.90 per cwt month-to-month increase in the June Class III price. Unfortunately, this was largely offset by record negative Producer Price Differentials (PPD) across…
One thing that COVID-19 has not affected this year is Mother Nature. For much of the U.S., 2020 has had an excellent growing season, especially in the Midwest where most of the nation’s corn and soybeans are grown. The Pennsylvania growing season has not been as forthcoming with rainfall as other parts of the country….
I feel like I start all these weekly articles with some sort of comment about COVID-19. I cannot help but start it that way again this week. COVID-19 in many ways has turned our lives upside down. In a matter of a couple of months, U.S. unemployment went from 3.5%, which was near an all-time…
Plenty has happened over the last several months because of COVID-19. It has certainly been a roller coaster ride that does not seem to have stopped. The 2020 U.S. all-milk price has gone from a forecast of $19.25 per cwt in January to a low of $14.35 per cwt in April and has since rebounded…
July is here as is the summer heat and humidity. July 2020 is currently tied for the hottest July on record for Pennsylvania. At the time of writing this article, a few days remain in July with a couple more 90 plus degree days in the forecast. With the current forecast, this is likely to…
According to the USDA, the federal government has provided dietary advice to its citizens for over 100 years. I found an article online from the National World War II Museum that stated the first chart developed by the USDA was in 1943 and was called the “Basic 7 Food Chart.” It showed a breakdown of…
The last four months have certainly been challenging for dairy farmers and the entire dairy supply chain. We saw a huge shift in demand from food service to retail almost overnight. This disruption created extreme volatility in milk prices, resulting in May milk prices being the lowest prices we have seen in over 10 years….
In 2000, Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) Reform occurred and set up a class pricing system by which dairy producers would be paid based on class utilization of milk within the FMMO. The system also set minimum prices for each classification based on historic actual values. The class pricing system was developed assuming that the…
