Protein took the big hit for August. We are looking at over $1/cow/day in lost component value.
Class I increased 0.11 to $18.81/cwt
Class II decreased 0.20 to $15.20/cwt
Class III decreased 1.11 to $14.10/cwt
Class IV decreased 0.77 to $14.14/cwt
Fat decreased 0.14 to $2.53/lb
Protein decreased 0.26 to $1.48/lb
Other solids increased .03 to $0.1422/lb
Not good news for our already stressed industry. Spoke to the largest dairy in VT yesterday, she must have been aware because she talked about how concerned she is for the next 6 months or so.
The drop in milk component prices is not good news but not unexpected. There are mountains of cheese in cold storage and the European Union is dumping dried milk products on the market. The EU has been increasing production and building stocks of NFDM, dried whole milk, and dried whey. We must help producers lower their cost of production. Two areas that need focus is reducing the number of dairy replacements being fed. Too many farms are feeding too many replacements and this increases their cost of production. A second area to focus on is improving forage digestibility. This means using a research-proven inoculant on corn silage, using a yeast probiotic to increase fiber digesting bacteria numbers in the rumen and isolating BMR corn silage so that it can be used for early lactation and high producing cow groups.