Editor’s note: This article has been updated with additional details on the amount of the initial dairy payment. Dairy producers will receive 20 cents per hundredweight (cwt) on their annual milk production history under a USDA program aimed at offsetting negative financial impacts of ongoing trade and tariff wars.

The USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) updated Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program participation on July 22, noting year-to-date indemnity payments to dairy operations enrolling in the program for 2019 had reached $145 million.

About one in five dairy operations purchasing Dairy Revenue Protection (Dairy-RP) insurance through Compeer Financial received an indemnity payment in the first quarter of 2019, according to Josh Newton, crop insurance team leader. Dairy-RP is designed to insure dairy farms against unexpected declines in quarterly revenue from milk sales relative to a guaranteed coverage level.

June 2019 U.S. milk production was below year-ago levels, according to the USDA’s monthly Milk Production report, released July 22.

Digest Highlights

• May fluid sales down a little
• Dairy margins start July steady to weaker
• Pennsylvania proposal extends dairy dealer-producer contract termination notice
• USDA tool aids loan search
• Light-protected milk unveiled
• New York to enact Farm Laborers Fair Labor Practices Act
• USDEC to receive $2.5 million in Ag Trade Promotion funding
• 4,500-cow MVP Dairy hosts open house

Ice cream is more than a tasty treat. It’s big business in the U.S. In 2018, U.S. ice cream sales at retail exceeded $6.1 billion, according to IRI data courtesy of Dairy Management Inc.

You’re busy – milking cows, packing bunker silos and watching presidential candidate debates (well, maybe). With that in mind, Progressive Dairy looks at issues in the news impacting you and your dairy business.

The August 2019 Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) Class I base price is $17.89 per hundredweight (cwt), the highest level since January 2015. It is up 71 cents from July 2019 and $3.74 more than August 2018.

Digest Highlights

• Happy ‘almonds don’t lactate’ anniversary
• Darigold opens sales office in Dubai
• Beyond calcium: Milk promotes bone health
• Midwest Dairy brings Mootopia to the Minnesota Zoo
• Global Dairy Trade index improves
• USDA extended acreage reporting deadline in 12 states
• Wisconsin accepting 2020 watershed protection grant applications

The largest dairy cooperatives in the U.S. and California will seek milk transportation and marketing efficiencies under an agreement announced July 10. With the establishment of a marketing agency in common, Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) and California Dairies Inc. (CDI) will combine raw milk marketing and transportation efforts for both cooperatives in California.