A lower milk price forecast; latest farm labor wage rates
Washington Ag Today August 26, 2010 Increasing dairy cow numbers and the prospect of higher milk production in 2011 than this year has prompted the USDA to lower its all-milk price forecast for next near to $16.05 a hundredweight, just a nickel above this year’s expected average price. Dave Boone has a dairy operation in Skagit County and raises his replacement heifers in Grant County. He says margins are still slim for dairy producers, though a little better with not many operators leaving the industry. Boone: “I believe that dairy producers are in the business because they want to be there and I think that is one of the reasons, along with financial institutions not wanting to devalue their portfolios of what the dairy industry is to them, I think that is why it is as steady as it has been.” Like the numbers nationally, dairy cow numbers in Washington have been increasing. The dairy herd in July was up 13-thousand head from July of 2009 with two-thousand cows added from June to July of this year. The Agricultural Statistics Service says farm labor wage rates in the Pacific Region, which includes Washington, were down in a July survey compared to July 2009. The average wage rate this July was $11.27 cents an hour, sixteen cents less than last July. The national farm labor rate was $10.82. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on Northwest Aginfo Net. ?
