The Latest: May - 2024
Spring in Full Swing But Not a Typical Year for the Dairy Industry
Milk should be plentiful and cheap, but this is not a typical year for the dairy industry. USDA reports processors bought spot milk in the Midwest at prices ranging from $1.50 under to 50ȼ over Class III. Spring premiums are atypical, and the midpoint of the range is unusually high for this time of year.
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Early this year, we highlighted the combination of too much milk on the market and mysteriously low demand. Now, demand is stronger. So why haven't prices improved?
View reportNow that an updated trilateral free trade agreement among the U.S., Mexico and Canada is tentatively in place, dairy industry players are combing through the details to get a sense of what will happen once the terms of the deal become effective in 2020.
View reportNews that American and Mexican trade authorities reached a tentative agreement on an updated NAFTA was welcomed by the dairy industry with open arms. But it's far from a sure thing: If Canada doesn't also buy into the deal, a new NAFTA will be sunk.
View reportIt’s strange how much can change over the course of a year and yet we end up almost where we started. Here we are again at the end of summer, back to talking about a butterfat shortage in Europe.
View reportIt become obvious this spring and summer that the dairy industry was climbing out of the bearish period that marked late 2017 and early 2018, even in the face of tariffs and trade uncertainty. But as we dig a bit deeper, we've noticed a different trend, one which bodes far worse over the long term than tariffs.
View reportWhen Mexico announced its retaliation to U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports in early June, those affected by new tariffs predictably flipped out. It included the dairy industry, as cheese was among products newly subject to levies. But is the industry’s frantic reaction warranted?
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