The USDA released its latest Ag Prices report on Feb. 28, including factors used to calculate January 2023 DMC margins and indemnity payments.

Following the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) proposed guidance allowing plant-based beverages to use "milk” in labels and marketing, multiple dairy state lawmakers have introduced a bill to nullify it.

March 2023’s Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) advanced Class I base price moved lower, falling below $19 per hundredweight for the first time since November 2021.

Interest rates on agricultural loans in major agricultural Federal Reserve districts jumped in the fourth quarter of 2022, in most cases to highs last seen 15 years ago.

• 2023 DMC milk enrollment percentage up
• House farm bill hearing held at World Ag Expo
• Gillibrand announces 2023 Farm Bill dairy priorities
• Coming up

It wasn’t a rush to the pools but Class IV represented about 12.5% of the total milk pooled in all FMMOs in January, the highest volume and percentage since last May. It probably won't last.

U.S. dairy exports finished what was an already stellar year with gusto, according to a monthly market update from the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC).