News

Digest Highlights

• IDFA, food associations seek COVID-19 vaccination priority designation
• Agriculture dragged into U.S.-EU aircraft subsidy dispute
• September 2020 fluid sales slip
• Things you might have missed
• Dairy Download: Retailers, independent grocers share takeaways
• Progressive Dairy COVID-19 resources

At first blush, it would appear dairy farmers are not heeding risk management warnings, even as storm clouds over 2021 milk prices grow darker. With the deadline about three weeks away, enrollment for the 2021 Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program continues at a slow pace. Enrollment numbers should jump soon.

Like their counterparts throughout the U.S., the COVID-19 pandemic forced a pivot in the Mid-Atlantic regional dairy supply chain, from the farm to the store shelf. Panelists shared their business and personal experiences during the sixth annual Agriculture Law Education Initiative (ALEI) environmental and agricultural law conference, held virtually and livestreamed on Facebook in early November. The archived session, “Pivoting in a Pandemic: Risk Management during COVID-19,” is available here.

As the number of cases of COVID-19 escalates this fall, the impact on milk marketing resulted in another surge of negative producer price differentials (PPDs) in affected Federal Milk Marketing Orders (FMMOs).

The USDA’s November World Ag Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report raised milk production and price forecasts for both 2020 and 2021. For dairy producers, those milk price gains will likely be offset by higher projected feed costs.