Dairy Information: 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.

  • Dairy cow numbers in the US have held stable at  9.4 million cows nationally for the past thirteen months.The Pennsylvania herd dwindled from 525,000 cows to 521,000 over the past year.
  • Pennsylvania’s milking herd averaged 66.5 pounds per cow per day,up from 66.1 last June which nets a .2 percent drop in total monthly production.
  • National production per cow grew to 74.4 pounds per day, a .8 pound per cow per day increase from last June.Total June milk production in the United States was 1.18 percent above last year.
  • PA’s DHI herd average is 22,375 pounds of milk with 1549 pounds of components. This is a .2 percent drop in milk production but components are only .1 percent lower than last June.
  • The June Pennsylvania All Milk Price is $1.20 below last year. Feed costs are about $.40 less than last year, netting margins that are around $.80 per hundredweight under last year.
  • The warm, wet weather raised average somatic cell counts to the highest June value since 2015
  • The average days in milk on the typical Pennsylvania dairy was 8 days less than last year, although June 2016 and 2015 had similar values.
  • Pregnancy rates are .4 percent higher than recent Junes.
  • Average calving age is now 24.9 months, 18 days shorter than three years ago.
  • DHI cull rates are 37.8 percent, 4 percent more than recent Junes.

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 June MPP Margin is $7.36521
  • The Pennsylvania MPP margin, calculated with NASS values for milk, corn, alfalfa hay, and a soybean meal value of + $40.00 over the MPP value was $7.4837 for the same time period.
  • The rolling 12 month average of  dairy cows slaughtered in the U.S. is 3.2 percent higher than the 3 year average.
  • Butter stocks are 15..8 percent larger than June 2017.
  • Domestic cheese stocks are 6.3 percent larger than last May and the rolling one year average is 5.5 percent larger than the three-year average.
  • Nonfat Dry milk inventories are similar to last year, but the 12 month rolling average is 16 percent larger than the 3 year average.
  • CME butter prices are 12 % below than last July, still trading significantly lower than other world markets.
  • Federal order Cheddar Cheese prices are 3 percent lower than last July.
  •  U.S. dairy export volumes were the third highest on record in May at  17.2 % of domestic production.

Alan Zepp, the center’s risk management program 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.