The U.S. dairy product export market stumbled in February as cheese continued its strong growth performance, recording a 7% year-over-year improvement in milk solid equivalents (MSE), but nonfat dry milk/skim milk powder (NFDM/SMP) fell to its lowest export value since 2019, leading to a year-over-year 5% fall in total dairy product exports. Here’s Progressive Dairy’s 30,000-foot look at dairy-related export categories.

“The market sometimes, or at least now, feels like we've gone from good, to difficult, to different. And I think one of the most significant things about the current hay market right now is that things are very different,” market analyst and hay exporter Scott Courtright told attendees at the California Alfalfa and Forage Symposium.

Josh Callen, market analyst and publisher of The Hoyt Report, gave attendees at the California Alfalfa and Forage Symposium an update on hay markets in the western U.S.

Larger harvests are impacting dry hay markets in many regions as 2024 comes to a close. On-farm hay inventories, new seeding estimates and production summaries for all forage crops will provide a clearer picture in early January.

The decline in U.S. dairy exports slowed, but economic factors continue to challenge U.S. suppliers.

May-July U.S. agriculture trade deficit is likely the largest in history.