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 .3 percent smaller than a year ago. The Pennsylvania dairy herd is 2.3 percent less than last November.
  • The Pennsylvania herd fell from 525,000 cows to 513,000 in the past year.
  • Pennsylvania’s milking herd averaged 62.4 pounds per cow per day, down from 63.6 last November.
  • National production per cow is 71.1 pounds per day for milking cows, 1 percent more than last November. Total U.S. milk production in November was .64 percent above last year.
  • PA’s DHI herd average fell to 22,240 pounds of milk with 1534 pounds of components. This is a 1.2 percent decrease in milk production and 1.7 percent drop in components compared to last December.
  • The December milk margin at 75 pounds of production fell to $11.60 per hundredweight, lower than the past three Decembers. Feed cost have been stable this fall but they are about 8 percent above last year.
  • Somatic Cell counts are higher than November 2017,2016 & 2015 values.
  • The average days in milk on the typical Pennsylvania dairy was 172 days, down from 180 four years ago.
  • Pregnancy rates fell to 17.4 percent, down from 19.9 percent last December.
  • Average calving age is now 24.9 months, 18 days shorter than three years ago.
  • DHI cull rates are six 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.

  • Several of the source reports are not available this month due to the partial U.S. government shutdown.
  • The October 2018 MPP Margin is $8.95740
  • 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 $8.5626 for the same time period.
  • Dairy cow slaughter numbers continue at 10 percent above last year. The rolling twelve month average of dairy cows slaughtered is 4.4 percent larger than the 3-year average.
  • Butter stocks are 3.7 percent smaller  than November 2017.
  • Domestic cheese stocks are 7.5 percent larger than last November and the rolling one year average is 5 percent larger than the three-year average.
  • Domestic Nonfat Dry milk inventories fell 20 percent since last year, but the 12 month rolling average is 10 percent above the 3 year average.
  • CME butter prices are 2.5 % stronger than last November.
  • Federal order Cheddar Cheese prices are 16 percent below last November.
  •  U.S. dairy export volumes in the third quarter of 2018 were up 10 percent due to strong powder sales.

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.