Identifying consumer trends and generating new, innovative dairy products to meet these demands provides opportunities for increased dairy consumption.

Monthly dairy cull cow marketing hit a 36-year high in March, topping 300,000 head for just the third month since the whole-herd buyout program.

Fluid milk sales started the new year as they ended the last one, trending lower.

Milk produced and marketed in the 11 states in the southeastern U.S. is pooled on the Appalachian, Southeast and Florida Federal Milk Marketing Orders (FMMOs).

March 2023’s Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) advanced Class I base price moved lower, falling below $19 per hundredweight for the first time since November 2021.

• U.S. establishing second USMCA dispute panel on Canadian dairy TRQ policies
• WOTUS lawsuit hearing set
• USDA launches Cattle Contracts Library
• FDA testing feed samples for PFAS
• USDA proposal keeps low-fat flavored milk as option in schools 
• Booker seeks more AFO oversight

Digest highlights

• Hearing set to consider southeast U.S. FMMO proposals
• Farmers sought for study about how they balance children and work
• JDS: Milk’s packaging influences its flavor
• Other news, briefly

Update highlights

• February 2023 Class I base price on the move again
• December cull dairy cow marketing higher
• Inflation hit dairy aisle in 2022
• November fluid sales stayed on trend
• GDT index dipped
• Coming up

The spread between December Class IV and Class III FMMO milk prices tightened.

December Federal Milk Marketing Order Class II, III and IV milk prices will be announced Jan. 5.