As printed in our June 2016 issue...
VITAMIN D AND POTASSIUM will be added to FDA's updated Nutrition Facts Panel. In replacing vitamins A and C, vitamin D and potassium joined calcium and iron as under-consumed nutrients in American diets. Dairy delivers three of the four - calcium, potassium, and vitamin D.
WHILE FDA CALLED OUT ADDED SUGARS on the nutrition panel, lactose from dried and concentrated dairy ingredients will not be counted as "added sugars" unless lactose has been extracted and added exclusively to foods. Calories from fats also were removed from the panel.
USDA'S FIRST 2017 ALL-MILK PRICE FORECAST ranged from $15.25 to $16.25. Fonterra's forecast for New Zealand farmers was $4.25 per kilogram of milk solids, which equates to $11.34 per hundredweight. For the remainder of this year, USDA pegged a $14.85 midpoint.
COSTS CLIMBED AND REVENUE FELL in California. It took $17.78 to produce 100 pounds of milk compared to $17.42 in 2014. Even though feed costs fell, labor rose 9 percent, and replacements jumped 54 percent. Milk checks averaged $15.94 per cwt. in 2015 versus $22.37 a year earlier.
CALIFORNIA JERSEY HERDS NETTED $18.29 for mailbox prices on expenses of $20.96 per cwt. Holstein herds garnered $15.15 with a $17.12 cost per hundredweight, reported the state's ag department.
THERE WAS A $1.12 SPREAD between the net cost of production per hundredweight in New York ($18.15) versus the New England states ($19.27), according to a Farm Credit East study. Feed costs fell 8.6 percent and fuel costs dropped 35.7 percent when comparing 2014 to 2015.
AT $1,820 PER HEAD, REPLACEMENT VALUES held within $10 during the first four months. Prices averaged $1,970 one year ago.
APRIL MILK FLOW CLIMBED 1.2 PERCENT NATIONALLY. Among the top 23 dairy states, California, New Mexico, Kansas, Utah, Florida, and Virginia reduced output. South Dakota led all gainers, up 10.5 percent; Michigan, 6.5; New York, 5.3; and Wisconsin, 4.6.
SOME PLANTS HAVE DUMPED MILK in response to heavy flow in the Northeast and Upper Midwest. For the month of April, Class IV milk under the category "animal feed and dumpage" jumped to 22.6 million pounds . . . up from 5.9 million in March 2016 and 5.4 million in April 2015, reported Northeast Federal Milk Market Order administrators.
BRIEFLY: Margins fell to $7.47 per cwt. in March 2016 for the Margin Protection Program, the lowest since MPP-Dairy began in 2014. Construction on a new milk powder plant in Turlock, Calif., began in June. The plant will process 2.5 million pounds of milk per day and will be owned by five dairy farm families. Butter inventories climbed to 298 million pounds, the highest level since March 2013.
