Dairy processors are a vital link between the dairy farm and the consumer. Processors take farm milk, then process or manufacture the milk into quality, safe, desirable, convenient and usable consumer products or as an ingredient for other products.

What will 2015 farm milk prices look like? This is a question asked by many dairy farmers. The USDA’s November 2014 outlook projects the 2015 all-milk price to average $19.40 per hundredweight (cwt), which is about $5 per cwt lower than 2014.

It is important for dairy farmers to know what is taking place in consumption of dairy products. The consumers of dairy products keep the dairy industry in business. No consumers, no dairy industry. The amount and type of dairy products consumers purchase changes over time. Consumers today are not eating the same dairy products, in the same amount, as they did 20 or 25 years ago.

Why do dairy farmers belong to a milk marketing cooperative? With which areas of the cooperative are members most satisfied or dissatisfied? What factors most influence that level of satisfaction? Do cooperative members think they can influence their cooperative?

Recently, I completed a 12-week cardiac rehabilitation program. A part of the program is nutrition education – what I should eat and not eat to prevent heart disease and maintain a healthy heart. Among the program’s nutrition recommendations are: if you drink milk, drink 1 percent or skim; better yet, replace cow’s milk with an almond or soy beverage (I cannot call it milk); stay away from butter; yogurt should be non-fat; cheese should be lower-fat varieties; and try to stay away from ice cream, but if you do eat ice cream limit the indulgence to one scoop and not very often.

The 2012 Census of Agriculture is this country’s 28th agriculture census. The first agriculture census was taken in 1840. President George Washington is given credit for seeing the need for an agriculture census. The recently released 2012 census contains hundreds of pages and tables of agricultural demographic, economic and statistical data. Many of you, including me, filled out and returned a census form back in 2012, which is the basis of the census.

A number of milk prices are published each month. They include: Class I, II, III and IV; Class I Mover; butterfat, protein and other solids; quota and overbase; producer price differential; and blend. All of these prices are important and contribute to determining the price dairy farmers receive for their milk production. But at the end of the month, the most important price to a dairy farmer is the mailbox price. This is the milk price paid to dairy farmers for their milk production after all deductions.

With more than 15 percent of the nation’s milk production (on a total solids basis) exported in 2013, the U.S. is a global dairy marketer. Milk production in New Zealand, the European Union (EU) or other countries has as much impact on farm milk prices as production in California or Wisconsin. Due to this impact, it is important for dairy farmers to know what is happening in milk production in other countries.

Due to my interest and background in purebred dairy cattle, I have followed the price of dairy replacements for many years. While working with a Florida-based dairy cooperative, my interest in watching dairy replacement prices grew for another reason. Many of the cooperative members purchased all or a large percentage of their replacements. Some members purchased hundreds of replacements each year. Watching the replacement buying patterns of cooperative members provided me another barometer of what was happening on their dairy farms in terms of profitability.