We use cookies to provide you with a better experience. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies in accordance with our Cookie Policy.
Much of the news about fluid milk focuses on its declining sales and per-capita consumption. However, there is good news to report. Whole milk sales were 4.5 percent higher in 2015 than 2014.
Domestic commercial disappearance of all manufactured dairy products was up in 2015. Even though fluid milk sales continued their downward trend, sales of whole milk were actually higher in 2015 compared to the previous year.
The hearing to consider a Federal Milk Marketing Order for California ended on Nov. 18, 2015, after 40 days of various witnesses presenting testimony and exhibits and being cross-examined. Now it is up to the secretary of agriculture, based on the hearing record, to issue a decision recommending or not recommending a California federal order.
The consumer of dairy products – the person who buys that chunk of cheese, jug of milk, pizza topped with cheese or bakery product with whey solids or milk powder as an ingredient – is who makes the dairy industry a business.
When one thinks of the country of Lebanon, dairying is not the first thought that comes to mind. Most people associate Lebanon with its civil war, the suicide bombing of U.S. Marines back in 1983, the 2006 war and being right next door to the current conflict in Syria.
Today, almost all packaged fluid milk, as well as many other dairy products sold to consumers, has the following or something similar printed on the product’s package: “This milk is produced from cows not treated with artificial growth hormone or BGH.”
As we all know, 2014 was a record year for farm milk prices, and this was reflected in a record average mailbox milk price of $24.04 per hundredweight (cwt) for various federal order reporting areas. The California 2014 mailbox average was $21.83 per cwt.
Butter, cheese, nonfat dry (NDM) and skim powder (SMP) utilize about 65 percent of the nation’s milk production. In some states, especially the nation’s largest milk-producing states, the percent of milk used by these products is even greater.
Since Jan. 1, 2000, about 85 percent of the milk regulated by Federal Milk Marketing Orders has used multiple component pricing (MCP) to pay dairy farmers. Under federal order MCP, dairy farmers are paid for their milk production based on pounds of butterfat, protein and other solids. Combining the values of these components equals the federal order Class III price.
