U.S. dairy exports posted a February record, 17.3 percent of
U.S. milk solids production equivalent, even as domestic commercial use of milk
in all products showed its first monthly drop since January 2023.
The year-over-year deficit in U.S. milk production continued
to grow, with February production down over a year ago by 1.3 percent, adjusted
for leap year. For the last nine months, the U.S. milking cow herd has been
smaller than a year earlier, with the contrast increasing each month, from a
drop of 12,000 head year-over-year in June 2023 to an 89,000-head decline in
February.
Monthly NDPSR and federal order Class prices showed mostly
modest gains from February to March, while the U.S. average all-milk price rose
by $0.50 per cwt from a month earlier to February’s $20.60 per cwt. The
February DMC margin gained almost a dollar per hundredweight on this price
move, to $9.44 per cwt, as a $0.46 per cwt drop in the DMC feed cost
accompanied the higher price.