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Dairy Products Prices
As of May 9, 2009

Cheddar Cheese
U.S. 40 pound block                                       $1.18/pound (down $0.033 from May 2, 2009)
U.S. 500 pound barrels                                   $1.11/pound (down $0.03 from May 2, 2009)

Butter
U.S. 68 pound box, USDA Grade AA          $1.20/pound (up $0.006 from May 2, 2009)

Nonfat Dry Milk
USDA Extra Grade                                        $0.83/pound (up $0.004 from May 2, 2009)

Dry Whey
USDA Extra Grade                                        $0.23/pound (up $0.017 from May 2, 2009)

 

Source – USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, Dairy Products Prices released M ay 15, 2009

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Milk Production
As of May 18, 2009

23 Major States - April 2009
14.9 billion pounds
Nominal increase from April 2008

23 Major States - March 2009Revised
15.2 billion pounds
0.1 percent increase from March 2008
47 million pounds – revised amount increase
0.3 percent – revised amount increase

 

Source – USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, Milk Production released May 18, 2009

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NMPF Welcomes Long-Overdue Arrival of Promotion Checkoff on Dairy Imports

The National Milk Producers Federation hailed the announcement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that it will finally apply the dairy promotion checkoff to imported dairy products, 25 years after the national 15 cent checkoff was first applied to U.S.-produced milk. Jerry Kozak, President and & CEO of NMPF praised Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack for moving quickly to implement the assessment.

On May 18th, the USDA published a proposed rule spelling out how it will calculate and assess the checkoff on imports. Interested parties will have 30 days to submit comments. The proposal will assess the equivalent of 7.5 cent per hundredweight on all dairy-based imports, including cheese and butter products, as well as dry ingredients such as casein and milk protein concentrates. The money will be collected by the National Dairy Board to be used for nutrition research, consumer education, issues management, and other programs that build demand for dairy consumption.

“At a time when most of the news about the dairy economy is bad, it’s heartening to see that we have finally prevailed in a decade-long battle to ensure a level playing field between U.S.-made dairy products, and imports,” said Kozak. “All that America’s dairy farmers have ever asked is that dairy importers, who benefit from the world’s largest dairy market, pay their fair share to help expand that market, the same way that our farmers do.”

NMPF first worked with Congress to include a provision in the 2002 Farm Bill to expand the promotion checkoff to imports, but the expansion was blocked due to objections that the domestic checkoff was not applied to farmers in all 50 states, only the continental 48. So, NMPF again worked with Congress as it wrote last year’s Farm Bill to ensure that the checkoff was applied in every state, removing the potential stumbling block importers had raised about the equal treatment of all domestic and imported milk production.

Kozak noted that imports of dairy products have grown in the past two decades, at a rate even faster than domestic production. In the past 10 years alone, the value of dairy imports sold in the U.S. has expanded from $800 million, to nearly $3 billion. He also noted that ten other farm commodities have promotion programs that apply their checkoff to imports, saying that “dairy has been a glaring exception to a common practice.”

“While dairy imports enjoy a larger share of the U.S. market compared to where things stood back in 1984, importers haven’t paid a single penny to help promote the market, the way America’s dairy farmers have. It’s time that inconsistency ends,” Kozak said. “Everyone who benefits from this market should pay part of the tab.”

Kozak said NMPF will urge the USDA to quickly review the comments it receives in the coming month, and implement the import assessment soon after the comment period closes.

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CWT Auditors Begin Removing Cows as Farms are Audited

CWT’s field auditors have begun visiting the 388 farms that have been tentatively accepted in the program’s seventh herd retirement, as they initiate the process this week of removing nearly 103,000 cows that produced two billion pounds of milk last year.

CWT officials have now released more detailed information about the size and scope of the self-help program’s largest-ever herd retirement program. 60 percent of the farms selected are located east of the Mississippi River, while 79 percent of the 103,000 cows to be removed come from the Western and Southwest regions of the U.S. 81 percent of the milk removed will come from those two regions, a portion slightly higher than in the six previous CWT rounds [see chart below].

Jim Tillison, Chief Operating Officer of CWT, put the scope of this herd retirement round in perspective by estimating that “the amount of milk we’re removing is equivalent to eliminating the future production of 200 million pounds of cheddar cheese per year.”

“All dairy farmers are stressed economically right now. However, the number of cows bid in this round by producers in the West and Southwest is an indication that their financial stress is particularly acute given where their milk prices and input costs are,” Tillison said.

Farmers had submitted a total of 535 herd retirement bids last month to CWT, and CWT was able to accept the nearly three-quarters of them. CWT is also removing approximately 1,000 bred heifers, which is an option under the program.

All farmers bidding in this round will be notified no later than June 12, 2009, as to whether their bid was among those accepted.

Tillison said he and CWT’s economic advisors are monitoring key indicators in order to determine the right time to implement the next herd retirement.

 

 

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