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 number of dairy cows in the U.S. continues to hold at 9.4 million cows.
  • The Pennsylvania herd fell from 525,000 cows to 519,000 in the past year.
  • Pennsylvania’s milking herd averaged 63 pounds per cow per day,down from 64 last August which nets a 2.6 percent drop in total monthly production.
  • National production per cow is 72.2 pounds per day for milking cows, a 1 pound per cow per day increase from last August. Total August milk production in the United States was 1.3 percent above last year.
  • PA’s DHI herd average recovered to 22,454 pounds of milk with 1551 pounds of components. This is a .4 percent increase in milk production and .2 percent growth incomponent compared to  last August.
  • The August Pennsylvania All Milk Price is $2.80 below last year with similar feed costs, netting margins that are around $1.80 per hundredweight under last year.
  • Somatic Cell counts are stable.
  • The average days in milk on the typical Pennsylvania dairy was 2 days less than last year, although August 2016 and 2015 had similar values.
  • Pregnancy rates are similar to last summer.
  • Average calving age is now 24.9 months, 18 days shorter than three years ago.
  • DHI cull rates are 38.3 percent, 5 percent more than recent August 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 August 2018 MPP Margin is $7.42622
  • 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 $6.6851 for the same time period.
  • Monthly dairy cow slaughter values are 5.3 percent above last year and the rolling twelve month average is 3.5 percent larger than the 3 year average.
  • Butter stocks are 3.8 percent larger than August 2017.
  • Domestic cheese stocks are 2 percent larger than last August and the rolling one year average is 5. percent larger than the three-year average.
  • Domestic Nonfat Dry milk inventories fell 10 percent since last year, but the 12 month rolling average is 14 percent above the 3 year average.
  • CME butter prices are 5 % below than last September, still trading significantly lower than other world markets.
  • Federal order Cheddar Cheese prices are almost .45 percent lower than last August.
  •  U.S. dairy export volumes in August were up 12 percent due to strong powder sales to Mexico.

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 hereto access a recording of the latest call.