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National Dairy Product prices mixed

June 19, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The National Dairy Products Sales Report for the week ending June 15 has cheddar cheese blocks averaging $1.76 per pound down 2.2 cents from the previous week. Barrels averaged $1.77 per pound up 0.9 cents. Butter increased 1.9 cents to $1.57, whey increased 0.6 cents to 57.4 cents per pound and nonfat dry milk slipped 0.2 cents to average $1.68 per pound.

The Base Class I price for July milk is $18.91, down 2 cents from June. The base skim milk price for Class I is $13.50 up 41 cents from the previous month and the highest price since last December.

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A little more milk in May

June 19, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Total milk production in the U.S. in May was 17.74 billion pounds up 0.8 percent from May, 2012 and the biggest year-over-year increase of 2013. Milk production in the 23 major dairy states increased 0.9 percent in May to 16.52 billion pounds.

15 of the 23 major milk-producing states saw an increase in production compared to a year ago, 7 saw a decrease and Florida was unchanged. California produced 3.7 billion pounds of milk in May, a half-percent less than May of 2012. Wisconsin production increased 1.2 percent to 2.36 billion pounds. New York produced 1.177 billion pounds up 2.1 percent; Idaho had 1.175 billion pounds up 0.3 percent and Pennsylvania produced 935 million pounds up 2.3 percent from May of last year.

Milk cow numbers and production per cow are not reported due to the budget sequester.

Read the full NASS report here:

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Global Dairy Trade prices up/ Outlook prices down

June 18, 2013 By Leave a Comment

After declining for the last two months, the overall average price nudged a little higher on the Global Dairy Trade Auction in New Zealand on Tuesday. Cheddar cheese was 6.5 percent lower and butter milk powder declined 2.2 percent from the June 4th auction. Anhydrous milk fat increased 1.7 percent, whole milk powder up 2.2 percent, skim milk powder was 3.2 percent higher and butter increased 4.7 percent putting the average for all products up 1.1 percent from the last sale. There were no sales of lactose, milk protein concentrate and rennet casein.

Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) has accepted four requests for export assistance from Dairy Farmers of America and Northwest Dairy Association (Darigold) to sell 310,852 pounds of Cheddar cheese to customers in Asia and North Africa. The product will be delivered June through September 2013.

Year-to-date, CWT has assisted member cooperatives in selling 61.123 million pounds of cheese, 51.727 million pounds of butter, 44,092 pounds of anhydrous milk fat and 218,258 pounds of whole milk powder to 31 countries on six continents

Monthly Livestock, Dairy and Poultry Outlook from USDA on Tuesday held only slight changes for dairy. Corn prices were raised from the May estimates reflecting delayed planting, reduced production and tightened supplies. Soybean and alfalfa prices were also raised and that means higher feed prices. U.S. milk production estimates unchanged for 2013 at 201.8 billion pounds but the 2014 production estimate was reduced to 204.5 billion pounds. The Outlook Board says high feed prices will keep the milk-to-feed ratio below the level needed to prompt expansion of the dairy herd.

Cheese and butter price estimates for 2013 were lowered to reflect growing cold storage inventories. Cheese is pegged at $1.745 to $1.785 this year. Butter was reduced to $1.54 to $1.61 this year. 2014 butter price estimate was also reduced to $1.48 to $1.61 while the cheese price was left unchanged from last month’s estimate at $1.675 to $1.775 per pound.

The Class III price for 2013 is estimated at between $17.80 and $18.20 this year, $17 to $18 next year. Class IV is pegged at $18.15 to $18.65 this year, $17.75 to $18.85 in 2014. The all milk price for 2013 was raised a little from last month now estimated at $19.60 to $20. Next year’s all milk price is projected to be between $18.95 and $19.95 per hundredweight.

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Vilsack and Napolitano support immigration bill

June 18, 2013 By 1 Comment

U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano support the Senate immigration bill that Vilsack says will be good for agriculture.

“And there’s no question that absent it, we will continue to have shortages and we will risk the possibility of some agricultural production in the United States that’s taking place today migrating outside the United States. We know if California that roughly 80-thousand acres of production has already moved out of the country because of labor shortages.”

Vilsack says the immigration reform in the bill is necessary for agriculture.

Secretary Napolitano told reporters she knows the border well and says the Senate proposal is “a great border security bill.” She says it sustains and enhances border controls and will increase the number of officers at land ports of entry. Plus, she says, “It has an entry-exit provision so that we can better ascertain who has overstayed their Visa and find them and remove them from the country should they need to be removed.”

The bill adds 6.5 Billion Dollars to secure the US southwest border with Mexico and would allow most of the nation’s 11 million unauthorized immigrants to apply for U.S. citizenship within 13 years.

AUDIO: Tom Vilsack, Janet Napolitao (12:00 mp3)

 

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Packaged fluild milk sales were higher in April

June 17, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Packaged fluid milk sales in April totaled 4.3 billion pounds up 1.1 percent from April of 2012. Conventional milk sales were up 0.6 percent while organic milk sales were up 13.5 percent compared to a year ago. USDA reports total organic milk product sales in April came to 191 million pounds.

Organic whole milk sales were up 18.5 percent to 50 million pounds while sales of reduced fat organic milk is 26.9 percent above a year ago at 57 million pounds. The average price for a half-gallon of organic milk is $3.59 compared to a $1.00 for a half gallon of conventional milk putting the organic-to-conventional spread at $2.59 last week compared to $1.80 two weeks before that.

The March mailbox price averaged $19.30 across the Federal Milk Orders ranging from $21.96 per hundredweight in Florida to $17.01 in New Mexico.

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South Dakota priorites in farm bill, Noem says

June 13, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Lawmakers in the House will soon debate the farm bill passed by the House Agriculture Committee this year. South Dakota Representative Kristi Noem says while she doesn’t have any specific amendments for the bill, most of the provisions she championed in committee are in the base bill.

“The livestock disaster programs that were put in there, the pine beetle regs that will help us with the battle out in the Hills, the sod saver provision on conservation issues. Then, we’ve got a commodity title that gives some options that are good for our growers in South Dakota.”

Having Speaker Boehner on board, Noem says, will help. She tells reporters, “Well, you know, he doesn’t vote for many farm bills. I think he’s only voted for one in all the years that he’s been out here. So, the fact that he came forward and said that he plans to support this one because of the monumental reforms that are in there, I think that’s good and it may bring a few more votes our way.”

When it comes to nutrition program cuts, Noem says she’s focused on what the actual reforms in the bill will do.

“I really feel as though the reforms we put into place are going to make sure that people get the help who really need it and that those don’t will no longer be able to abuse the program.”

The House farm bill proposes $20 Billion in SNAP/Food stamp cuts and the Senate-passed farm bill cuts 4-Billion-dollarsworth.

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New CEO named for National Milk Producers

June 12, 2013 By Leave a Comment

A new President and CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation has been named. The group’s current Chief Operating Officer, Jim Mulhern, has been appointed by the board to fill the position held by Jerry Kozak since 1997. Mulhern is to take over on January 1st, 2014.

Kozak told the NMPF board earlier this year that he wanted to retire at the end of this year.

Missouri Dairy producer Randy Mooney, the NMPF Chairman, says Mulhern’s experience and knowledge –quote- “cannot be underestimated in a complex industry like ours.”

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CWT votes to increase contributions and extend export program

June 12, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The members of Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) have voted to increase their contributions to the program and extend it through 2015. Effective July 1st, members will double their contribution from 2-cents to 4-cents per hundredweight. The increase is to cover the large increase in CWT-member requests for export assistance. National Milk Producers Federation president and CEO Jerry Kozak says the revenue is needed if we are “to continue to successfully compete in world markets this year and into the future.”

Initially designed to take cows out of production in times of oversupply, the focus of CWT has changed to now assisting in the export of U.S. dairy products. Since the start of 2011, the program has helped member cooperatives sell 257.7 million pounds of American-type cheeses and 111.5 million pounds of butter to 39 countries on six continents.

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A look at global dairy production

June 11, 2013 By Leave a Comment

While milk production has been consistently strong in the U.S., production has been slowing down in Australia and New Zealand. It is getting towards the tail-end of the production year in Oceania and overall milk output has been running behind year-ago levels. The drought in New Zealand is the big factor. Rainfall has recently returned to more normal levels so the pastures are rebounding and should be in good shape when the new production year begins. Dairy Market News reports farmers will get higher payments for next season’s milk reflecting higher global prices. Devalued Australian currency could have an effect on things as well making exports more price-competitive on the world market.

In Western Europe, flooding and wet conditions are causing some problems for dairy farmers in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic but early indications are the effects are minimal, mainly limited pasture access and some transportation issues. Milk production has already peaked in Germany and production there as well as in Holland and Denmark is running above year-ago levels. France, the U.K. and Ireland are below year-ago levels.

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Senate to vote on farm bill today

June 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The Senate is scheduled to vote on—and expected to pass—its version of the Farm Bill later today. 

The House is expected to begin debate on the farm bill next week.  Ranking member Collin Peterson says he is optimistic the House will finish voting on a final bill by July 1st.  It would then go to a House-Senate conference committee to iron out differences between the two bills.

Some of those differences are in the commodity title. But in an interview on C-SPAN, Senate Ag Committee chair Debbie Stabenow said she’s confident those can be resolved. 

“What we’ve passed this time is a little closer to where the House is—and I’m sure we can find some common ground,” Stabenow says.

Stabenow says there are also many similarities between the two bills.

“In conservation, the House and the Senate came together and have a pretty common conservation title,” she says. “Specialty crops, crop insurance—I mean we have a number of areas where it’s actually pretty close, if not almost identical.”

However, differences in SNAP, or food stamp funding, could be a sticking point.  The Senate bill calls for four-billion dollars in cuts, while the House version cuts 20.5 billion dollars—with pressure from some congressmen to cut even more.

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