DAIRY MARKET REPORT VOLUME 27 | ISSUE 4
4/23/2024
OVERVIEW 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 yearover-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.
COMMERCIAL USE OF DAIRY PRODUCTS Overall U.S. dairy consumption growth was basically stagnant during December 2023-February 2024, measured on a leap-year adjusted basis. Consumption was particularly weak for cheese, weighed down by
DOMESTIC COMMERCIAL USE
losses in American-types, and for yogurt. Losses in fluid milk were more moderate than in most recent periods. Butter, by contrast, grew by a low double-digit percentage.
DEC 2023FEB 2024
DEC 2022FEB 2023
2023-2024 CHANGE
PERCENT CHANGE*
(million pounds) Total Fluid Milk Products
10,986
10,920
66
-0.5%
Yogurt
1,165
1,173
-7
-1.7%
Butter
545
486
60
11.0%
American-type Cheese
1,346
1,385
-39
-3.9%
All Other Cheese
1,975
1,952
23
0.1%
Total Cheese
3,322
3,338
-16
-1.6%
Dry Skim Milk
157
174
-17
-10.6%
All Products (milk equiv., milkfat basis)
53,380
52,853
527
-0.1%
All Products (milk equiv., skim solids basis)
45,132
44,766
366
-0.3%
All Products (milk equiv., total solids basis)
47,770
47,335
436
-0.2% *Adjusted for Leap Year