• Dairy products: Smaller shipments to China, Asia
• Dairy replacement export outlook promising
• Demand from Japan supports hay exports
• U.S. ag trade surplus grows
• Other trade developments

Citing declining milk cow numbers and slower growth in milk per cow, the USDA trimmed its 2018 milk production estimate and also cut the 2019 production forecast, lending support for somewhat higher prices.

Jessica Peters and Katie Dotterer-Pyle are young farmers who aim to change the way the dairy community interacts with the world and vice versa.

The wait is (kind of) over. Last fall, trade authorities in the U.S., Mexico and Canada agreed to a trilateral free trade agreement (USMCA) that replaces the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Meeting changing consumer demands for nutritious snacking and convenience can boost dairy product consumption, according to panelists featured during the Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin (PDPW) annual Dairy Food and Policy Summit, held Dec. 19-20, 2018 in Madison, Wisconsin.

With the government shutdown ended, U.S. dairy producers covered an additional 1.6 billion pounds of milk under Dairy Revenue Protection (Dairy-RP) insurance policies in the first week after policy sales resumed.

Digest Highlights

• Reminder: MFP payment application deadline is Feb. 14
• USDEC to receive $5.3 million under Trade Mitigation Program
• Dairy launching ‘protein’ initiative
• Federal Reserve holds line on interest rates
• January Class IV price hits 16-month high
• November cull cow prices hit eight-year low
• November dairy products report released
• Global Dairy Trade index takes big jump

A proposal to bring whole and flavored milk back to school lunchrooms has been introduced in the House of Representatives.

USDA staff began the task of collecting and reporting a mountain of data that went unreported during the partial government shutdown. One of the first reports updated was November 2018’s Margin Protection Program for Dairy (MPP-Dairy) calculations, released about a month later than scheduled, on Jan. 31, 2019.