Here’s an update on interest rates from quarter three of 2024 as reported by Federal Reserve districts that share data impacting dairy finances.

The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) released its Agricultural Prices report Nov. 19, which includes feed costs used to calculate the October Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program margins and indemnity payments. The margin slipped to $15.17 per hundredweight (cwt).

As we look to the last month of the year, milk prices are trending lower than the previous months’ highs with milk production up year over year, new cheese plants online and holiday buying finishing up noted as a few influencing factors. Yet margins continue to look favorable.

In the news this week: CARB approves Low Carbon Fuel Standard program updates, DFA plans to stop production at Indiana condensing plant in January, checkoff launches new conservation resource, and DCRC annual meeting addresses sustainable dairy cattle management practices.

Strong demand for U.S. dairy products around the global, with the exception of China, propelled year-over-year dairy exports forward by 8.5% in September. Here’s Progressive Dairy’s 30,000-foot look at dairy-related export categories.

“A calf on the loose!” Those were the words my son Declan hollered one evening just before bedtime. 

The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) released its Agricultural Prices report Oct. 31, which includes feed costs used to calculate the September Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program margins and indemnity payments. The month’s margin was $15.57 per hundredweight (cwt).

Milk futures remain high as feed costs drop to levels last seen in 2020, yet other market pressures such as lower butter and cheese prices and waning holiday demand, as well as recent milk production reports revealing gains for the first time in more than a year, complicate the matter.

U.S. milk production was down 3.9% in September compared to a month prior, according to the USDA’s September Milk Production report released Oct. 21. Production was up 0.1% year over year, while third quarterly estimates (July-September) were also up slightly from the same time in 2023.