Milk Production Falls Ever So Slightly

The USDA's April Milk Production Report shows that milk production declined by just one tenth of one percent from April of 2008.  Milk cow numbers from March to April dropped by less than 2000 head.  No big surprises since many producers were waiting to see if their bids were going to be accepted into the CWT Herd Retirement Program.  Since the report was done, CWT has announced their largest buy-out in history taking nearly 103,000 cows out of the milking herd over the next two months.  That should remove about 2 billion pounds of annual milk production and CWT added that this may not be the only herd retirement program they have in 2009.

Getting back to the April Milk Production Report, it did show a slight increase in milk production per cow and it also revised upward the March production figure which instead of declining by .3% ended up showing an increase in milk production of .1% over March of 2008.  Most analysts feel the report will have minimal impact on the Class Three price which is still forecasted to average between $10.95-$11.25 for the 2009 calendar year.