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Retail milk price comparisons

Some interesting milk-pricing notes from the American Farm Bureau’s quarterly market basket survey. For the first quarter of 2010, shoppers reported the average price for a half-gallon of regular whole milk was $2.00, up 1 cent from the prior quarter. The average price for one gallon of regular whole milk was $3.15, up 14 cents. On a price-per-quart basis, whole gallons were about 25 percent cheaper than half gallons.

A half-gallon of rBST-free milk averaged $3.62, up 54 cents from the previous quarter and 80 percent more expensive than a half gallon of regular milk. The average price for a half-gallon of organic milk was $3.66, up 9 cents from the fourth quarter of 2009 and also 80 percent more expensive than regular milk.

Compared to the first three months of 2009, a gallon of regular milk is the same price, a half-gallon of regular is 8 percent cheaper, organic is 1 percent cheaper and rBST-free is about 13 percent more.

The American Farm Bureau says retail food prices were a little higher in the first quarter of this year compared to the end of last year but things are cheaper than a year ago. A survey of 16 food items that can be used to prepare a meal shows they cost $45.54, up 6 percent from the fourth quarter of 2009 but 4 percent less than the first quarter a year ago.

Shredded cheddar cheese, deli ham, apples, vegetable oil, bacon, boneless chicken breasts and eggs increased the most in dollar value from quarter-to-quarter. In fact, prices were higher for 14 of the 16 items, only white bread and ground chuck were cheaper.

Compared to a year ago, prices are lower for chicken breasts, ground chuck and sirloin tip roast.

One thing that has been decreasing steadily, the farmer’s share of the food dollar. AFBF says of the $45.54 spent on the market basket items the farmer’s share is $8.65, that figures out to 19 percent.