The USDA announced October’s Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) margin at $15.17 per hundredweight (cwt), $5.67 above the $9.50 trigger. This will be the eighth consecutive month for program year 2024 with no indemnities triggered at any coverage level. Following September’s peak margin at $15.57 per cwt, we saw a 40-cent drop in October’s margin. October’s…
At my house, just off the crest of the valley top with fields to the west, there’s typically a point in mid-October when it seems like something in the wind shifts, issuing in the change of season. This year, the dairy markets seemed to experience a similar drafty shift. For months, dairy prices strengthened from…
When most producers think about managing risks on their dairy, they think about milk price and margins, weather and crop loss risks, animal health issues, and maybe even farm safety concerns. They don’t always think about how to manage against the risk of losing a key employee on the farm to another opportunity. While employee…
The USDA announced September’s Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) margin at $15.57 per hundredweight(cwt), the highest margin since the program’s inception in 2019. The margin did not trigger indemnities at any coverage level. September’s margin made a $1.85 per cwt jump from August’s margin of $13.72. From September 2023’s margin at $8.44 per cwt to September…
According to the USDA’s Milk Production report, Pennsylvania’s milk production came in at 779 million pounds for September 2024, up 0.1% year over year, after several months of slight to modest declines. From September 2023’s 465,000 head, Pennsylvania’s cow numbers experience a slight 1,000 head increase to 466,000 in September 2024. From August to September,…
Opportunities are presented to us every day, but it’s the actions we take when they cross our path that determine our outcome. When it comes to dairy risk management, we may not see an opportunity for what it is until weeks or months later. However, no one is ever going to time the markets perfectly…
In mid-September the U.S. dairy markets were riding high. CME spot cheddar barrel prices were climbing toward record highs, and blocks were trading at historically elevated levels. Butter was sitting above the $3 per pound mark, while the nonfat dry milk market was pushing toward the highest levels in two years.
Many of us breathed a sigh of relief late last week when East Coast dock workers ended their strike and went back to work. They ended the strike after they reached a tentative agreement with port owners on wages. During the strike, grocery stores saw panicked shoppers emptying shelves, while business owners found their supplies…
USDA announced August’s Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) margin at $13.72 per cwt, the highest margin since the program’s inception in 2019. The margin did not trigger indemnities at any coverage level. August’s all-milk price came in at $23.60 per cwt, jumping 80 cents from July’s $22.80. At $23.60 per cwt, August’s all-milk price is the…
If you’re inclined to bury your head in the sand when thinking about milk prices, now might be a good time to come up for air. Milk prices heading into the fourth quarter for both Class III and IV are sitting squarely above $21 per hundredweight, supporting some of the best revenues dairies have seen…
