dairy-related information, see Background , Market Outlook , Trade , Policy , and Readings. ERS provides data and reports on dairy markets, including domestic and international supply, demand, trade, and prices.

In addition to the periodic Outlook reports and data products, ERS produces reports covering timely issues important to dairy markets across the United States and world. For more ERS publications on dairy see Readings. Skip to navigation Skip to main content.

Home Topics Animal Products Dairy. Periodic, Scheduled Outputs Relating to Dairy Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Outlook LDP is a monthly report that provides supply and use projections for U.

Dairy Data is a dataset that includes files covering domestic supply, demand, and trade of various dairy products. Data on the U. dairy situation and commercial disappearance are updated monthly, and U. milk production and related data are updated quarterly.

All other data files are updated annually. These include data on dairy per capita consumption; fluid milk sales; milk supply by State and region; milk production and factors affecting supply and utilization of milk in all dairy products; and numbers and size of milk bottling plants.

WASDE at a Glance is a monthly interactive visualization that provides key data and highlights from the most current WASDE report on livestock and dairy as well as field crops.

Commodity Costs and Returns is a data product that provides annual estimates of production costs and returns for major field crops, milk, hogs, and cow-calf operations. Price Spreads from Farm to Consumer is a data product that compares prices paid by consumers for food with prices received by farmers for corresponding commodities.

Recent ERS Reports Relating to Dairy In addition to the periodic Outlook reports and data products, ERS produces reports covering timely issues important to dairy markets across the United States and world.

Recent ERS publications relating to the dairy sector include: Documentation for the USDA, Economic Research Service Annual U. Dairy Sector Econometric Model This report provides documentation for the Annual U. Dairy Sector Model used by the USDA, Economic Research Service ERS.

Using econometric estimation, this dynamic model provides projections for supply, demand, and prices for U. milk and dairy products over a year period.

The model provides support for U. dairy projections baseline projections published in the USDA Agricultural Projections report each year.

The model is also used to provide scenario analyses related to market conditions and various Federal Government policies TB, July per capita fluid milk consumption has been trending downward for more than 70 years and fell at a faster rate during the s than in each of the previous six decades.

This reinforces the concept that having a balance of input costs and expenses is critically important to earning a profit. Expenses that don't increase income on the farm should be carefully considered.

Purchased feed was an important issue for the farms and will likely be even more important in These costs include purchased feed and the value of home-raised feed at cost for all animal groups on the farm.

Table 1. Dairy Cow and Heifer Enterprise, Farms sorted by Net Return over Labor and Management, The lower feed and hired labor costs were also reflected in a lower cost to produce heifers.

Sold or transferred refers to the way heifer costs are analyzed in this method. Heifer calves are "transferred" to the heifer enterprise when born and are later "transferred" back to the milking cow enterprise when freshened. Heifers sold for cash instead of staying in the herd are also counted in this total head sold or transferred.

Comparing to previous years in Table 2, the numbers across the board are slightly less favorable than in This reinforces the need to use as much home-raised feed as possible to reduce total feed cost.

The farms with lower purchased feed costs often have a better fit of cows to the amount of crop acreage they utilize. This results in less purchased grains and forages to feed their herds. Yield per acre was higher in at Yield is a very important issue in the cost per unit for forage and grain crops.

Table 3 provides some data to objectively compare the whole farm financial health for each year. Farms made some financial progress on paying off outstanding bills, lines-of-credit, and other current debt during and The current ratio remained essentially the same at 2.

This suggests most farms in the group were able to stay current with bill paying in While producers often comment that farms are exiting due to a heavy debt load, the solvency issue was improved slightly in compared to previous years.

This modest improvement in debt to asset ratio was likely due to a reduction of short-term current debt and accounts payable made possible by government payments including risk management tools like Dairy Margin Coverage and Dairy Revenue Protection the last two years.

Rate of return on assets declined to 5. This was a significant improvement over the 2. The Term Debt Coverage of 1. Stronger profitability provides more money to pay principal and provide owner draw.

Profitability drives all the other financial ratios and is essential for farms to make financial progress. The Operating Expense ratio is an excellent measure of the efficiency of converting farm expenses to sales. This ratio slipped slightly in to That means average was higher than the previous year, so milk price did not adversely affect this ratio, but the combination of higher feed costs and lower milk pounds sold moved this measure in the wrong direction.

The average Michigan cow produces over 27, pounds of milk each year. That is over 3, gallons of milk! Milk in Michigan is local! Michigan dairy farms produce enough milk to supply the entire state, and the extra milk is exported to other states to meet their demands.

Each container of milk is identified by a 5-digit code. The code includes a 2-digit state code, followed by a 3-digit processing plant code. Milk packaged in Michigan is identified by the state code There are over dairy processing plants in Michigan.

In addition to bottling milk into gallon, half-gallon, and pint size containers, they also process cheese, ice cream, yogurt, dry milk powder, and infant formula.

One dollar spent locally generates twice as much income for the local economy. In supermarkets and many local farmers markets, you can find milk, cheese, and yogurt produced by milk from Michigan dairy farmers.

Only 1. population produces food for us and millions of people worldwide. Homemade yogurt and kefir keep well much longer than fresh milk. Homemade yogurt is fairly easy if you use the crock-pot or Instant pot method. If you want to save money in that area, take 5 minutes yes, 5 on a weekend and try it.

If you can get a hold of the starter from a website or a friend who has some to share, give it a go! Saving money and eating healthy is a balancing act.

You get to decide what you prioritize. When it comes to dairy, some of the best ways to save money are learning how store it, freeze it, substitute, and even ferment it.

Can you provide specifics? Like… how much milk does it take to make how much yogurt i. Hi Kim! Homemade yogurt yields the same amount of yogurt as milk — so if you use 1 gallon of milk, you will get about 1 gallon of yogurt. When you compare the cost of yogurt and milk, it saves a lot of money!

There are trade-offs, like the learning curve and a little bit of time. Use plain unflavored gelatin to thicken it. I get mine at a baking outlet in the city, keeps forever.

I might try it again now though! Any tips? Your email address will not be published. Don't subscribe All new comments Replies to my comments Notify me of followup comments via e-mail.

You can also subscribe without commenting. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. How to Store Dairy Products Make sure you store dairy products in the proper place.

Meanwhile, yogurt and butter keep in the fridge for a really long time. Freeze it! Ferment it! Kim on September 7, at pm. Steph on September 8, at pm. Hélène on September 19, at am.