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MINNEAPOLIS - One word describes mailbox milk prices this past August: up.
Prices rose in all 19 reporting areas, according to the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). The increase from July averaged 94 cents per hundredweight, bringing the national average to $16.69. What's more, the August average this year was up 21 cents, compared to August 2015.
Milk producers in Wisconsin saw an increase of $1.26. That jump from July brought the average price in America's Dairyland to $17.78. A year earlier, the average mailbox price in Wisconsin stood at $17.50.
In Minnesota, Gopher State dairy producers posted a gain of $1.56 from July. That made the August mailbox average finish at $17.78, the same as Wisconsin. A year earlier, the Minnesota average was $17.23.
Iowa's August average totaled $17.19, an increase of $1.04 from July. A year ago, Hawkeye State farmers got an August average of $16.84.
The highest August mailbox price was recorded in Florida. The Sunshine State average hit $18 and was up $1.21 from July.
The New England States - Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont - wound up with the second-highest August average price. It ended up at $17.68, up 64 cents from July.
Three other reporting areas recorded August averages above $17. One of those was Illinois, where the average finished at $17.09, up $1.05 from the month before.
Southern Missouri farmers were paid an August average of $17.19, up from $15.90. Farmers in the Southeast States - Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi - were paid an average of $17.13, up from $15.88 in July.
Farmers in nine other reporting areas received $16 or more for their August milk. In the Northwest States - Washington and Oregon - the average was $16.83, up from $16.03 in July.
Close behind, at $16.81, were the Appalachian States - Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. The price there rose 94 cents from July.
In western Pennsylvania, the average finished at $16.43, up 64 cents. In one state to the east - Ohio - the mailbox price average was $16.35 in August, up 52 cents. New York dairy producers were also paid an average of $16.35, up 59 cents from the month before. Moving to eastern Pennsylvania, the price average was $16.34, up 59 cents.
The Corn Belt States - Kansas, Nebraska and part of Missouri - saw an August average at $16.06. That was up from July's $14.93. In western Texas, the mailbox price averaged $16.25, up from $14.87 in July.
Hoosier State farmers received an August average of $16. That was up 40 cents from July.
Dairy producers in California - not a part of the federal milk marketing order system - saw an August average of $15.75, up from $14.55 in July.
Once again, dairy producers in New Mexico did not receive the lowest mailbox average. In the Land of Enchantment, the August price finished at $15.42, up from $14.07 in July.
Michigan dairy producers once again received the lowest mailbox milk price. In the Wolverine State, the August price average was $14.70, up 72 cents from July.
This past August, the U.S. average butterfat test was 3.63 percent, while the average protein test was 3.01 percent. Other solids in the milk averaged 5.74 percent.
Mailbox prices are the actual, net amounts farmers see on the checks in their mailboxes. The AMS collects these prices through its federal milk order market administrator offices. Mailbox prices include all payments farmers received for milk they sold.
These prices also reflect all deductions associated with marketing that milk. There's no adjustment to 3.5 percent butterfat, so mailbox prices reflect the actual test of the milk.
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