News

Digest Highlights

• Retail dairy sales: Summer ends on high note
• Global Dairy Trade index jumps
• ‘Protecting Your Profits’ webinar is Sept. 23
• Politics: AFBF posts presidential candidates’ views; MMPA cites Peterson
• 2021 World Ag Expo canceled
• Fortistar, Palmona Dairy building RNG facility
• Funds available to update Minnesota livestock operations
• Progressive Dairy COVID-19 resources

You’re busy milking cows, evaluating feed quality and wishing you were planning your annual trek to World Dairy Expo. With that in mind, Progressive Dairy looks at issues in the news impacting you and your dairy business.

Negative producer price differentials (PPDs) improved on August milk marketings, but they didn’t go away, based on Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) monthly milk utilization and uniform price calculations. August uniform milk prices across all 11 FMMOs were mixed compared with a month earlier.

It may seem like ages ago, before COVID-19-related market disruptions and changes in consumer habits, but 2019 was another record year for U.S. per capita dairy product consumption. Based on annual estimates from the USDA, increased consumption of cheese and butter offset another year-to-year decline in fluid beverage milk.

While there’s no guarantee it will happen, long-standing market patterns and current weather conditions point to the potential of weaker cull cow prices ahead. Mark Linzmeier, dairy marketing adviser and owner of Linzmeier Business Solutions LLC, provides a “heads up” for anyone who has been holding on to dairy cows (and USDA numbers indicate you are) but are considering culling as milk prices come off peaks for the remainder of 2020.