The cost to haul milk in the Upper Midwest was up 1.5 cents when comparing May 2022 to May 2023. In its annual report on the costs of shipping milk, Areerat Kichkha, an economist with the Upper Midwest Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO), notes that nearly 60% of the milk is produced by 7.8% of the farms in the analysis, which includes 8,822 producers. The weighted average charges for the entire order were 42.02 cents in May 2023, compared to 41.53 cents per hundredweight (cwt.) in May 2022.

Those averages are influenced by total pounds shipped per farm on a per cwt. basis. Farms shipping less than 49,999 pounds a month paid 83.88 cents per cwt. on a weighted average basis. Those charges dropped to 58.53 cents among those producing 50,000 to 99,999 pounds of milk. The additional eight milk weight categories ranged from 33.18 to 51.57 cents per cwt., with the 1.5 million to 2.5 million pound group paying the lowest freight, reported Kichkha.

Looking at the state averages, Minnesota edges out Wisconsin for the lowest rate by a penny. These two states account for 78.6% of the milk on the market in May 2023. The state’s hauling charges per cwt. in the report were:

• Wisconsin, 39.15 cents
• Illinois, 79.75 cents
• Michigan, Upper Peninsula, 72.42 cents
• Minnesota, 38.01cents
• South Dakota, 42.39 cents
• Iowa, 53.07 cents
• North Dakota, 91.14 cents

Those averages are, of course, influenced by average production per farm, giving a strong advantage to South Dakota with nearly 2.5 million pounds per month on average from the 152 farms in the report.

View the full report here.