Protecting Your Profits

Protecting Your Profits

The Center for Dairy Excellence offers several information resources to help producers identify opportunities to protect their profits. These documents are reviewed on a monthly “Protecting Your Profits” conference call. Click here to access the latest “Protecting Your Profits” Webinar.

Pennsylvania Dairy Industry Scorecard: The Center for Dairy Excellence publishes a monthly “PA Dairy Industry Performance Scorecard,” which looks at key factors supporting the growth of Pennsylvania’s dairy industry and evaluates trends affecting Pennsylvania’s dairy farms.

  • The national dairy herd held at 9.339 million for the second month in a row and is 0.15 percent smaller than a year ago.
  • The Pennsylvania dairy herd fell 483,000 head of dairy cows after remaining at 485,000 for five months. This is 4.4 percent less than last December. 
  • Pennsylvania’s milking herd averaged 64.7 pounds per cow per day, up from 62.8 last December.
  • National production per cow was up to 72.6 pounds per day for milking cows, 0.67 percent more than last December. Total U.S. milk production was up to 18.277 billion pounds, up from 18.155 one year ago, representing and increase of 0.59 percent over last year.
  • December Pennsylvania milk production fell 1.5 percent from last December to 843 million pounds, representing 4.6 percent of national production
  • PA’s DHIA herd average fell to 21,877 pounds of milk with 1523 pounds of components. This is a 1.6 percent decrease in milk production and 0.74 percent decrease in components compared to last December.
  • The December milk margin at 75 pounds of milk was $14.83 per hundredweight, $4.30 higher than last year.
  • Somatic Cell counts of 181,2300 are lower than December 2018 by 13.7 percent, and is the lowest December in at least the last 5 years.
  • The average days in milk on the typical Pennsylvania dairy was 174 days, up from 172 last December.
  • Pregnancy rates increased to 19.8 percent from 17.4 percent last November. 17.3 percent of PA DHIA herds have a pregnancy rate greater than 29%, an increase of 13.9 percent versus December 2018.
  • Average calving age is now 25.0 months, about 12 days shorter than four years ago.
  • DHIA cull rates are 37.6 percent, 3.9 percent compared to December 2018.

US Dairy Industry Scorecard: To provide an overview the national dairy industry, with consumption, marketing and production trends, the center publishes the monthly “US Dairy Industry Performance” scorecard.

  • The November All Milk Price was $21.00 per hundredweight, 23.53 percent better than November 2018.
  • December butter stocks were up 5.94 percent over December 2018
  • December cheese stocks were down 2.17 percent from December 2018
  • November powder stocks were down 22.84 percent compared to November 2018
  • November DMC margin is $12.21/cwt
  • December dairy cow slaughter was 1.61 percent above last year. 
  • CME butter prices are 7.94 percent lower than last December.
  • Federal order Cheddar Cheese prices are 33.97 percent above last November.
  •  U.S. dairy export value in November was 22.14 percent higher than November 2018 at over $530 million.

Zach Myers, the center’s risk education manager, reviews both of these scorecards monthly during his “Protecting Your Profits” calls. The calls are held the last Wednesday of every month. Click here to access a recording of the latest call.