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Milk production reports could offer more

A dairy economist says USDA milk production reports don’t give the full picture of cow productivity.

Corey Geiger with CoBank tells Brownfield component levels rather than volumes are driving prices.

“We need to start thinking about those milk production reports put out by USDA differently,” he suggests. “For years we have measured volume, it’s been a gold standard since 1924, but these plants that are coming online and the products that consumers are craving are very high butterfat and high protein products.”

He says more than $8 billion in new processing capacity will be in operation by 2026 with half dedicated to cheese and whey.

“We’re going to have back-to-back years where milk production was down for the first time since the 1960s, that’s a unique moment in time,” he says. “However, component production, butter, fat, and protein has been up one or two percent.”

He says those increased levels have helped farmer profitability this year along with lower feed costs.

Geiger is encouraging dairy farmers to lock in their feed costs now to capture the best prices the industry has seen in at least the past four years.