Dairy outlook improves
Washington Ag Today December 24, 2009 The USDA’s December outlook for dairy offered more encouragement to producers for the year ahead. USDA Outlook Board Chairman Gerry Bange explains why. Bange: “We are looking at an All-Milk price for the 2010 year now which is $16.75 a hundredweight, which is up 25 cents from our previous forecast and up nearly a third from the $12.75 that we expect in 2009.” USDA also recently announced the implementation of the new Dairy Economic Loss Assistance Payment program which was funded with 290 million dollars in the 2010 Ag Appropriations Bill. USDA Undersecretary Jim Miller explains how that will work. Miller: “We are going to take six months, of February through July, of their production and double that production. And then make them a direct payment, which we estimate is going to be about 32 cents per hundredweight on that doubled amount of expected production up to a maximum of six million pounds.” The USDA also recently announced that it will purchase about 60 million dollars in cheese and cheese products for use in domestic feeding programs which will provide help for low income families and for dairy producers. The latest milk production report from USDA shows November milk production in Washington was the same as in November of 2008. There were four thousand fewer dairy cows in the state last month compared to a year ago, but milk production per cow was up. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
