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 Performance 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.

• Pennsylvania’s dairy cow numbers fell to 529,000 cows while the national herd grew to 9.36 million cows, the largest herd since the 1990’s.
• The Commonwealth’s rolling monthly milk production peaked at 10.848 billion lbs. of milk in July as Pa’s total milk production in August fell below August 2015.
• Production per cow was .1 pound lower than last August, pushing the state’s DHI rolling herd average to 22,235 pounds per cow.
• August margins are the highest since December 2014 because feed costs are the lowest since August 2010!
•  30.2% of Pa herds still have a combined butterfat and protein yield over 1650 lbs
• 4.3% fewer farms utilized DHIA testing in August than a year ago. This probably reflects the financial stress dairy farm businesses.
• Somatic cell counts and average days in milk are both lower than last August.
•  Pregnancy rates 1% over the past two Augusts will help Pa dairies this winter.
• Almost half of Pa herds calve their heifers between 21 & 24 months of age.
• Cull rates are lower than the past two years as cull cow prices fell.

US Dairy Industry Scorecard: To provide an overview the nation al dairy industry, with consumption, marketing and production trends, the center publishes the monthly “US Dairy Industry Performance” scorecard.

• The final May/June  MPP margin is $5.76277
• There were 9.332 million dairy cows in the United States in July as the national herd continues to slowly grow. This is the largest dairy herd since the last cycle peak of 9.334 million cows in December 2008.
• U.S. milk production per cow averaged 71.2 lbs. in July,  .9 lb. above last July.
• July slaughter numbers are above July 2015, but similar to 2014.
• July butter stocks are 65% above the three year average and 30% greater than July 2015.
• Domestic cheese stocks are at an all time high, but only 16% more than the three year average even though they have grown by 10% in the past year.
• Domestic cheddar cheese prices continue to trade 20% higher than in Europe and Oceania. Butter prices in the U.S are falling while they are rising in other world markets, but domestic butter prices are still 10% over the GDT international price.
• Milk powder prices in the U.S. are below other world market prices, making these products competitive internationally even with the strong dollar.
• U.S. dairy export volumes in June were the highest since May 2015, although due to low dairy product prices, their value was 25% less than May 2015.

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.