My view

Milk prices must not collapse

By ARDEN TEWKSBURY
Posted 4/27/22

Prices paid to dairy farmers have finally reached nearly $25 per cwt. (hundred pounds of milk) and the Class I price in Federal Order One for April’s milk reached $27.63 per cwt., which is …

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My view

Milk prices must not collapse

Posted

Prices paid to dairy farmers have finally reached nearly $25 per cwt. (hundred pounds of milk) and the Class I price in Federal Order One for April’s milk reached $27.63 per cwt., which is $1.50 per cwt. higher than March’s Class I price.

This will raise the blend price for April’s milk by nearly 50 cents per cwt. However, the pay price for dairy farmers’ milk produced in April should reach at least $25.50 per cwt. If the price for manufactured milk moves either higher or lower, this will affect the pay price to some extent. We must keep in mind that in March 2014, the blend price was $24.97 per cwt., and after that, the prices started to crash for dairy farmers and everyone knows the rest of the story.

Thousands of dairy farmers were forced out of business all across the United States.  This just cannot happen again to dairy farmers (along with other farmers)!

All farmers are now on the verge of paying far higher costs for everything they purchase. Now is the time for all of us to work together and obtain a floor price for milk. It should be easier to obtain a floor price now that the prices are realistic. Please don’t wait until a pay price crashes again. Not doing anything is totally unacceptable.

Arden Tewksbury is the manager of Pro-Ag in Meshoppen, PA.

[Note: If you’d like to learn more, or fill in some knowledge gaps, the American Farm Bureau Federation has a primer on milk pricing at fb.org/market-intel/how-milk-is-priced-in-federal-milk-marketing-orders-a-primer.]

dairy farmers, milk, milk prices, floor pricefederal milk marketing orders

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