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MINNEAPOLIS - It's like déjà vu all over again. Just as happened a month earlier, mailbox prices in all reporting areas headed lower this past January, according to the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS).
The average mailbox price ended at $20.18 per hundredweight. That was off $1.32 from December's $21.50. But it was 68 cents higher than in January 2012.
Wisconsin's January average was the tenth highest, at $20.33. That was a drop of $2.47 from December, when its price was third highest. In January 2012, Wisconsin farmers got an average of $19.31.
Minnesota's mailbox price also tumbled, dropping by $2.36 and finishing at $20.24 for January. A month earlier, Minnesota farmers received an average of $22.60. In January 2012, they received $19.32.
Farmers in nine regions saw higher mailbox prices than Minnesota and Wisconsin. As it usually does, Florida led the way, this time with an average price of $23.22, down from December's $24.04, but up from last year's January figure of $22.85.
Mailbox prices higher than those Minnesota and Wisconsin farmers received were also recorded in: New England - $21.45; New York - $20.29; Pennsylvania - $20.39; Appalachia - $21.31; the Southeast - $21.71; Ohio - $20.71; Iowa - $20.60; and Illinois - $20.50.
In Iowa, the drop from December 2012 to January 2013 amounted to $1.19, going from $21.79 to $20.69. In January 2012, Hawkeye State farmers got an average of $19.38.
Farmers in eight areas got January mailbox prices lower than their counterparts in Minnesota and Wisconsin. In southern Missouri, the price averaged $19.98, down from $21.06 a month earlier, but up from $19.10 a year earlier.
Indiana farmers were paid $19.95 in January. That was down from $20.91 in December, but up from $19.33 a year before.
Just to the north, in Michigan, the January mailbox price averaged $19.81. That was down from $20.74 in December, but up from $19.04 a year earlier.
The Corn Belt states - Kansas, Nebraska and northern Missouri - received a January mailbox average of $19.50. That was 76 cents lower than the December price of $20.26, but 70 cents higher than the year previous.
West Texas finished at $19.08 for January, while New Mexico ended up at $18.16, and Washington and Oregon finished at $19.70. As usual, California - not in the federal milk marketing order system - recorded the lowest January mailbox price: $17.73.
Mailbox prices are the actual, net amounts farmers see on their checks. The USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) collects these prices through its federal milk market order administrator offices. Mailbox prices include all payments farmers got 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.
This past January, the U.S. average butterfat test was 3.86 percent, while the average protein test was 3.17 percent. The amount of other solids in the milk averaged 5.75 percent.
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