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A3O-L«ncaster Farming, Saturday, May 1, 1993
MILK
CHECK
THOMAS JURCHAK
Dairy Specialist
Lackawanna County
THOMAS JURCHAK
Lackawanna Co. Extension Agent
SCRANTON (Lackawanna Co.) With
continued production increases, milk and
dairy product prices continued their slipping
and sliding that started in August.
By the middle of October cheese prices
were down 8 cents on blocks and, since then,
down another 4 cents to $1.26 per block. But
that’s still 14 cents above the support price.
That’s a total of 12 cents in price drops in
13 weeks so the predictions of a gradual
decline were about right.
The increases in milk production have also
continued at the 3 to 5 percent rate in the upper
Midwest and New York.
Only Pennsylvania dropped back to 1 per
cent in September.
The affect of the cold, wet weather on
harvesting corn for silage or grain may slow
down production increases, but grain prices
could be low enough to offset the poorer
quality.
Right now, cheese processing capacity is
being pushed to the limit and only butter—
powder plants may have room for more milk.
Powder prices were helping last month, but
that market is weakening also to the point
where other regions are selling in powder
markets normally served by the Midwest.
If price declines continue, you may see
powder going into Commodity Credit Corpo
ration storage by the end of the year. Even
butler markets have fallen to the point where
CCC purchased 3.7 million pounds the first
week of November. That was the largest
weekly purchase in three months.
Milk Prices
Following the drop in dairy product prices
and production increase comes a drop in the
Minnesoia-Wisconsin Price Series.
After falling 31 cents in August and Sep
tember, another 23 cents was added in Octob
er for a total of 54 cents in three months.
That makes the M-W $12.05 for October
and the first time this year that it fell below
year-ago levels.
Further declines are expected for this year,
but predictions of a drop to less than $ll per
hundredweight next spring are beginning to
soften.
Considering the drop of 12 cents so far in
cheese prices, the M-W should be down to
$11.79 from its peak of $12.59 in July. So
there’s no doubt about further declines in the
next two months particularly since butter and
powder prices are adding to the drag.
The only thing that could help is a drop in
milk production-increases due to poorer qual
ity forage or lower prices. Or both.
Blend prices in all three federal orders
(F. 0.) in Pennsylvania are also below last
month.
It was 22 cents lower in F. 0.2 and F. 0.4,
and 17 cents in F. 0.36. However, the blend
prices are still above a year ago by 20 to 40
cents and probably won’t drop below last year
until next year.
Refund Alert
It’s time to add up your milk check stubs to
figure how much you shipped to handlers this
year.
You’ve been paying more than 13 cents
pcr-hundredweight all year, sending in excess
of $lBO million in nine months to your Uncle
Sam because of the Budget Reconciliation
Act of 1990.
USDA told Uncle Sam that you would be
producing more milk this year in spite of low
er prices. It was agreed that, if you didn’t pro
duce more than the previous year, you could
have your money back that’s .1365 times
all the milk you produced in 1992 compared
to 1991.
I’m not saying it's for everyone, but if
you’re very close by the end of November you
may want to feed a little more to the calves,
stay under your 1991 production and collect
your refund. Check it out while there’s time to
adjust.
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Trust Calls For Ag Plan Merger
WASHINGTON, D.C.
American Farmland Trust (AFT)
strongly supported the consolida
tion of existing on-farm conserva
tion plans into a single compre
hensive plan under the authority
of a total resource management
agency called the Agricultural and
Natural Resources Conservation
Service.
In testimony to members of a
House Agriculture Subcommittee
on H.R. 1440, AFT, a national
farmland conservation group bas
ed in Washington, called the bill’s
concept of a single plan a critical
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signals of conflicting plans.”
Warmen said a restructured Soil
Conservation Service should be
given responsibility for the single
resource-based plan and be re
named the Agricultural and Natur
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to reflect its total resource man
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he said, would help move the
country’s agriculture system to
ward what AFT has termed a
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source stewardship and market
place economics.
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