March 2023 Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program indemnity payments will top $126 million, boosting payments for the first three months of the year to more than $305 million.

Weaker milk prices and tighter milk margins have curtailed escalating national average cow prices.

January 2023 average “mailbox” prices averaged about 82 cents per hundredweight (cwt) less than announced average “all-milk” prices for the same month.

NMPF will pursue two other components of its FMMO proposal outside of the federal order hearing process.

The EPA is considering rescinding a 2019 reporting exemption of air emissions from animal waste.

If and once a hearing is granted, multiple steps mean any proposed FMMO changes would be subject to a producer referendum in late summer 2024, at the earliest.

The FDA guidance provides largely voluntary labeling of some plant-based beverages sold as dairy alternatives.

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.