USDA Lowers Milk Production Forecast

USDA has lowered its July estimate for milk production in 2020.

"Of course we saw a lot of processing issues at the beginning of the year as a result of Coronavirus and producers have been backing off production," said USDA Chief Economist, Rob Johansson. "So our estimate for 2020 is 221.5 billion pounds; that's down in billion pounds from out last month's estimate. We're gonna recover that next year."

"We saw a decline in in U.S. consumption as a result of the closure of a lot of those restaurants and other food service outlets for dairy products< Johansson continued. "So we are shifting some of that in to export markets."

He said increased exports will translate in to higher prices.

"We're expecting to see higher cheese prices month-to-month in both 2020 and 2021. Also, higher class III and class IV prices which translates in to a higher all mike price, up  to $18.25 dollars per hundred weight in 2020 up a dollar sixty from our last month's estimate.

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