Industry News

Have a happy holiday season! What will be in your Christmas stocking? No coal, I hope. How about cheese, eggnog, butter and gift certificates for your favorite cheese pizza?

Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) has sold two dairy facilities but will retain a third plant identified in a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) antitrust divestiture agreement.

With the USDA’s November Milk Production report estimating U.S. dairy cow numbers at a 29-month high, monthly year-over-year milk production rose at the highest rate since the second half of 2014. With no apparent slowdown in production, rumblings of base-excess programs and tiered-pricing are already growing louder.

Exporters of dairy replacement heifers and other livestock are coming to the end of a challenging year. The outlook for 2021 is more optimistic, if several factors fall into place.

Digest Highlights

• 2021 DMC enrollment tops 17,130
• CFAP 2 sign-up deadline closed
• U.S. files USMCA enforcement over Canadian dairy TRQs
• California QIP sunset plan referendum recommended
• Global Dairy Trade index moves higher again
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Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) uniform milk prices were mostly higher in November. However, milk class price relationships provided plenty of incentives for depooling, driving negative producer price differentials (PPDs) to new lows.