In the news affecting a dairy producer's bottom line the first week of December 2025:

Lee karen
Karen Lee
Managing Editor / Progressive Dairy
Karen Lee covers current news and events, and manages the dairy editorial team for the U.S. and C...

Steps taken to urge dairy enforcement in upcoming USMCA review

Earlier this week, the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) executive vice president for trade policy and global affairs, Shawna Morris, testified before the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), urging the administration to leverage the 2026 United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) Review to ensure that the agreement’s anticipated benefits for U.S. dairy producers and exporters are fully achieved.

“USMCA is a critical agreement for the U.S. dairy community,” said Morris at the hearing. “It’s crucial that the review address targeted implementation problems with Mexico and Canada to create an even stronger agreement that will be up to the task of facilitating U.S.-Mexico-Canadian trade for years to come.”

Becky Rasdall Vargas, senior vice president for trade and workforce policy at the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) also testified during the public hearing, urging negotiators to preserve the benefits of USMCA while rectifying the violations and operational challenges.

“USMCA is critical to U.S. dairy’s success, with Mexico and Canada accounting for 44 percent of all U.S. dairy exports – about 3.6 billion dollars annually,” Rasdall Vargas said. “Yet long-standing issues such as Canada’s dairy tariff-rate quota administration and its implementation of USMCA dairy pricing provisions limit U.S. exporters' ability to fulfill the promises of the USMCA agreement.”

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Morris echoed those same challenges with Canada and urged the administration to ensure Mexico upholds its USMCA commitments to protect common cheese names such as “Parmesan” and “provolone.” The issue is increasingly pressing as ongoing European Union trade negotiations with Mexico seek to restrict the use of generic terms in the United States’ largest dairy market.

The hearing marked the start of USTR’s first comprehensive review of USMCA, which entered into force in 2020 and requires a joint evaluation among the U.S., Mexico and Canada after six years to determine whether to extend the trade pact for another 16 years. The review process is designed to assess the agreement’s operation, address compliance issues and ensure that the framework continues to promote fair, rules-based trade across North America.

In addition, 74 House lawmakers sent a bipartisan letter this week urging the U.S. government to leverage the USMCA 2026 Joint Review to address concerns over the deal’s dairy provision implementation.

The letter to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer also highlights Canada’s misallocation of its USMCA dairy tariff rate quotas and exporting of artificially low-priced dairy proteins without appropriate limits. It also touches on Mexico’s need to fully implement common cheese name protections agreed to as part of USMCA. The lawmakers called on the administration to ensure these issues are resolved during the upcoming review process.

Walmart opens milk processing facility in Valdosta, Georgia

Walmart celebrated the grand opening of its second owned-and-operated milk processing facility in Valdosta, Georgia, which will create more than 400 new jobs, strengthen Walmart’s end-to-end milk supply chain and advance the company’s commitment to U.S. manufacturing and local sourcing. The 300,000-plus-square-foot facility represents a $350 million investment.

Sourcing milk directly from local dairy farmers, the Valdosta facility will process and bottle a variety of milk options – including gallon, half-gallon, whole, 2%, 1%, skim and 1% chocolate milk – for Walmart’s Great Value and Sam’s Club Member’s Mark brands. The new operation will supply more than 650 Walmart stores and Sam’s Clubs across the Southeast.

This follows the company’s investment in its first milk processing facility in Fort Wayne, Indiana, as well as two case-ready beef facilities in Thomasville, Georgia, and Olathe, Kansas.

Better outlook for the future pushes farmer sentiment higher

Optimism about the future pushed farmer sentiment up 10 points in November, according to the latest Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer. This is the highest barometer reading since June of this year.

“This month’s survey was the first survey conducted since the late October announcement of a trade pact between the U.S. and China that included provisions for increasing U.S. exports of agricultural products to China, and survey respondents were notably more optimistic about future prospects for U.S. agricultural exports,” said James Mintert, the barometer’s principal investigator and director of Purdue University’s Center for Commercial Agriculture.

“Sentiment was also buoyed by a sharp rise in crop prices from mid-October to mid-November,” Mintert continued.

The Ag Economy Barometer provides a monthly snapshot of farmer sentiment regarding the state of the agricultural economy. The survey collects responses from 400 producers whose annual market value of production is equal to or exceeds $500,000. Minimum targets by enterprise are as follows: 53% corn/soybeans, 14% wheat, 3% cotton, 19% beef cattle, 5% dairy and 6% hogs. Latest survey results, released Dec. 2, reflect ag producer outlooks as of Nov. 10-14.

GDT index falls further

The price index of dairy product prices sold on the Global Dairy Trade (GDT) platform is down 4.3% in the auction held Dec. 2. This is the eighth consecutive downward change and the lowest index value since January 2024.

Compared to the previous auction, prices for individual product categories were mixed. Cheddar cheese was up 7.2%. Both lactose and buttermilk powder also traded up at 4.2% and 1.8%, respectively. Butter was down 12.4%, and anhydrous milkfat was down 9.8%. Whole milk powder was down by 2.4%, and skim milk powder was down 1.6%. Mozzarella was down 1%.

The GDT platform offers dairy products from several global companies: Fonterra (New Zealand), Darigold, Valley Milk and Dairy America (U.S.), Inalpi (Italy), Arla (Denmark), Arla Foods Ingredients (Denmark), BMI (Germany), Kerry Dairy (Ireland) and Solarec (Belgium).

The next GDT auction is Dec. 16.

NEXT (NMPF Export and Trade) held its inaugural meeting last month to establish expectations, provide an in-depth report on program operations and identify steps to keep the program nimble and responsive to market conditions as the program itself saw another successful period of boosting U.S. dairy exports.

NEXT member cooperatives secured 107 contracts in November, adding 15.4 million pounds of product in NEXT-assisted sales in 2025. These products will go to customers in Asia, Oceania, Middle East-North Africa and South America and will be shipped from November through February.

The sales mark another month of progress for NEXT, which has seen strong results out of the starting gate in the second half of the year.

NEXT, which provides a means to move domestic dairy products to overseas markets by helping to overcome U.S. dairy’s trade disadvantages, was launched at NMPF’s June board meeting. November’s joint annual meeting provided an opportunity for NEXT members to meet on their own on Nov. 9.

Meanwhile, the NMPF board at its meeting approved a Strategic Advisory Group for NEXT, to shape the program by providing direction on programmatic initiatives and enhancements. Members of the group consist of representatives from participating cooperatives as well as two non-voting advisory positions. Michigan farmer and chair of Michigan Milk Producers Association, Doug Chapin, will serve as the NEXT Strategic Advisory Group chair with NMPF’s Will Loux serving as the program’s first executive director.

The advisory group will reconvene in January, as participants look to build upon the program’s initial success.

NMPF: Dairy production up, product prices down in October

U.S. fluid milk sales in September were 2.5% higher than a year earlier. Exports during June-August were significantly higher than during the same period a year earlier, according to a report from NMPF.

Summarizing dairy markets in the November 2025 Dairy Management Inc./NMPF Dairy Market Report, the recent expansion of U.S. milk production may be cresting. The USDA reported October production and dairy cow numbers were up over a year earlier by slightly smaller percentages than during September.

The National Dairy Products Sales report stated dairy product prices were almost all lower in October than a month earlier, as were all the federal order class prices.

For more information on commercial use, dairy trade, milk production, product inventories, prices and margins, view the November 2025 Dairy Market Report. Note: Some of the data normally reported in the Dairy Market Report was still not available due to the recent government shutdown.

Compeer Financial opens scholarship application for high school seniors

Starting Dec. 15, graduating high school seniors across Compeer Financial’s 144-county territory in Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin can apply for scholarships worth $2,000. The competitive scholarship program will award a total of 105 scholarships, 35 in each state. The application can be accessed online from Dec. 15 until it closes Feb. 15, 2026, and winners will be notified six weeks later.

To be eligible, graduating high school seniors must hold a cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 or better on a 4.0 scale; reside within Compeer’s 144-county territory; and designate an agricultural major, express interest in an agriculture-related field or have an agricultural or rural background.

More information about the scholarships and the online application can be found at Compeer's website.