The February margin is $6.22 per hundredweight of milk, 92 cents below January’s $7.14 margin.
Compared with January, milk prices decreased 40 cents per hundredweight. Corn prices increased 51 cents per bushel. Alfalfa hay increased $4.50 a ton, and soybean meal decreased $11.96 per ton.
Dairy producers who enrolled milk at a $6.50 margin or higher can expect a payout for February. Coverage at the $9.50 margin would yield a payout of $3.28 per hundredweight.
At the end of March, USDA estimated payouts for January and February would total more than $93 million. The agency’s April 5 report estimated the total at $22.6 million.
“The vast majority of DMC payments have been made, and we don’t expect the numbers to change much for the Jan. and Feb. payments,” the spokesperson said in an e-mail.
The number of DMC contracts for 2021 totaled 18,808, according to USDA’s March 29 report. Enrollment at the $9.50 margin represents about 95% of the milk covered by those contracts, USDA told Capital Press in early March.
Producers enrolled about 163.6 billion pounds of milk production history in the program for 2021, representing 80% of the milk and about 74% of dairy operations with production history for USDA programs.
USDA told Capital Press in early March about 30% of enrolled milk had some level of margin coverage — from $4 to $9.50.
