News

Most dairy product production up for February

The USDA says February dairy product production was mostly up on the year keeping pace with milk supply growth.

Matt Herrick with the International Dairy Foods Association tells Brownfield butter demand has remained strong, especially for exports. “Our export market for butter was through the roof, I think we did 40-50 percent more butter in ’22 than we had done in the previous few years which really put downward pressure on prices,” he says.

Butter production totaled 186 million pounds, up nearly two percent from the prior year but down seven percent from the last month.

Total cheese production was more than 1.1 billion pounds, up almost half a percent from last year, but down nearly eight percent on the month.

Italian cheese production was down more than one percent on the year and eight percent on the month while American cheese was up more than two percent on the year but down nine percent for the month.

Nonfat dry milk was up 4.5 percent from 2022 while skim milk powder was up nearly 29 percent.  Dry whey production was down more than five percent while lactose was up more than 10 percent on the year.