Milk pricing just may be one of the most complex topics in American agriculture. Even though all the intricate details of milk pricing take many years to fully master, there are four key products that truly drive the milk check.

With that premise as a backdrop, longtime dairy economist Peter Vitaliano shared that milk pricing could be distilled to just 20 words.

“Due to their key role in the Federal Milk Marketing Order pricing formulas, the prices of (1) butter, (2) cheddar cheese, (3) nonfat dry milk, and (4) dry whey mostly determine U.S. average milk prices each month,” said the National Milk Producers Federation economist during his presentation at the 54th World Dairy Expo.

For those who counted the quote . . . there are 33 words.

Boiling down the answer even more succinctly, Vitaliano bolded the following to 20 words . . .

“Due to their key role in the federal milk marketing order pricing formulas, the prices of (1) butter, (2) cheddar cheese, (3) nonfat dry milk, and (4) dry whey mostly determine U.S. average milk prices each month.”

In following those four product prices, everyone can track U.S. dairy markets rather well.

This was one of the key messages from Vitaliano’s presentation, “Dairy cow productivity: more important to the profitability of your dairy operation than you think,” given on Wednesday, September 29.