Here’s some good news for dairy farmers New Year: milk prices are starting to rise. The December all-milk price, according to the USDA, is $16.30 per hundredweight. That is up 44 percent from the lows registered this past summer. USDA used the $16.30 figure to compute the milk-feed ratio released in Wednesday’s “Agricultural Prices” report. Here are the all-milk prices … Read More
Ohio Meeting Discusses Milk Market
Here’s another story about dairymen and allied industries coming together to discuss the current milk market, and their concerns about it. Farmers in Ohio met to discuss the market effects of imports, marketing organizations and supply and demand, while a panel of experts spanning California to New York presented their plan for a new system of marketing milk. Past U.S. … Read More
N.Y. Dairy Rally Brings Out Dairymen
The current milk price has spurred many dairy farmers into action, getting them more involved in how their milk is marketed. A group of dairymen from western N.Y. and several even from Pennsylvania, met to discuss the Federal Milk Marketing Improvement Act of 2009 last week, at a dairy rally held in N.Y. A group of more than 150 dairy … Read More
Advisory Panel to Help Avert Drops in Dairy Prices
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will appoint an advisory board to recommend how the government can avert further freefalls in the price dairy farmers are paid for milk, his office said. The advisory board, whose membership has yet to be determined, could take the place of a congressionally mandated commission that was dictated by the 2008 farm bill but has yet … Read More
ERS Predicts Milk Price May Raise Slightly
A small ray of sunshine for our country’s dairy farmers – the USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) has raised its predictions for milk prices. In its March “Livestock, Dairy and Poultry Outlook” report, ERS economists write, “As a result of higher cheese and butter prices than forecast earlier, the prices for Class III and Class IV milk have been raised … Read More
NMPF Urges Obama to Help Dairymen
With a new leadership team arriving this past week in the White House, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) today urged that they turn immediate attention to helping dairy farmers weather the crushing collapse in dairy prices. “The plight of dairy farmers is just part of the overall ongoing story of the global recession, … Read More