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.

  • The national dairy herd is .8 percent smaller than a year ago. The Pennsylvania dairy herd is 7.1 percent less than last April.
  • The Pennsylvania herd fell from 524,000 cows to 495,000 in the past year.
  • Pennsylvania’s milking herd averaged 66.9 pounds per cow per day, down from 68 last April.
  • National production per cow is 75.7 pounds per day for milking cows,1.0 percent more than last April. Total U.S. milk production in April was 0.22 percent below last year.
  • PA’s DHIA herd average fell to 22,026 pounds of milk with 1524 pounds of components. This is a 1.6 percent decrease in milk production and 1.8 percent drop in components compared to last April.
  • The March milk margin at 75 pounds of milk was $11.90 per hundredweight, nearly $2 higher than last year.
  • Somatic Cell counts of 187,310 are lower than April 2018 by 2.1 percent, and is the lowest April in at least the last 4 years.
  • The average days in milk on the typical Pennsylvania dairy was 178 days, down from 181 three years ago.
  • Pregnancy rates rose slightly to 21.8 percent from 21.7 percent last April.
  • Average calving age is now 25 months, about 3 days shorter than three years ago.
  • DHIA cull rates are 39.4 percent, about 5 percent higher than year ago values.

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 March All Milk Price was $17.50 per hundredweight, 12.18 percent better than March 2018.
  • April butter stocks were down 5.37 over 2018
  • April cheese stocks up up 4.02 percent over 2018
  • March powder stocks were down 2.86 percent compared to March 2018 but the rolling 12 month average is up 3.58 percent
  • The March 2019 DMC Margin is $8.85
  •  April dairy cow slaughter was up 7.87 percent above last year. The rolling twelve month average of dairy cows slaughtered is 5.25 percent.
  • CME butter prices are 1.17 percent stronger than last April.
  • Federal order Cheddar Cheese prices are 3.86 percent above last April.
  •  U.S. dairy export value in March was 3.96 percent better than March 2018 and at over $529 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.