October’s Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) advanced Class I base price slid below $23 per hundredweight (cwt) for the first time since March, with the “Class I mover” formula change again having an impact.
At $22.71 per cwt, the October 2022 Class I base is down 91 cents from September but still $5.63 above October 2021. The 2022 10-month average is $23.73 per cwt, up $7.25 from the January-October 2021 average of $16.48 cwt and continues to be the highest average for that period on record, although the gap over the previous average high set in 2014 is closing.
Class I zone differentials are added to the base price at principal pricing points to determine the actual Class I price in each FMMO. With those additions, October 2022 Class I prices will average approximately $25.53 per cwt across all FMMOs, ranging from a high of $28.11 per cwt in the Florida FMMO 6 to a low of $24.51 per cwt in the Upper Midwest FMMO 30.
Analyzing the Class I mover, the spread in the monthly advanced Class III skim milk pricing factor ($7.04 per cwt) and advanced Class IV skim milk pricing factor ($12.67 per cwt) is $5.63 per cwt, the widest since July 2020.
Based on Progressive Dairy calculations, the Class I mover calculated under the “higher-of” formula would have resulted in a Class I base price of $24.71 per cwt, $2 more than the actual price determined using the “average-of plus 74 cents” formula. The economic impact on uniform milk prices within individual FMMOs depends on Class I milk utilization in each FMMO.
