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Minneapolis - Mailbox milk prices that were higher the sixth month in a row greeted dairy farmers in January of 2014. Prices were up in all reporting areas, according to the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS).
The January report had Wisconsin producers getting an average of $23.51 per hundredweight. That was $1.75 higher than in December, and $3.18 higher than in January of 2013.
In Minnesota, the January average finished at $23.48, up $1.87 from December. That was $3.24 higher than the Gopher State average in January a year earlier.
Iowa farmers were paid a mailbox average of $23.84 in January. That price was up $1.59 from December, and up $3.24 from January of 2013.
As usual, farmers in Florida received the highest average mailbox price. They got $25.33, up from $24.68 in December, and up from $23.22 in January of 2013.
The second-highest price in all the reporting areas came in the New England states - Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont - They all saw a January average at $24.68, up 94 cents from the month before.
The third-highest mailbox price came in the Southeastern states of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi. There, the January mailbox price finished at $24.62, up 93 cents from December.
Ranking fourth-highest in December were the Appalachian states - Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, at $24.59, up $1.07 from December.
Illinois and eastern Pennsylvania were next, both at $23.75. For Illinois, that was up $1.48 from December. For eastern Pennsylvania, the price was up $1.02.
Southern Missouri and western Pennsylvania posted the next-highest price, both at $23.69. That was a jump of 89 cents for southern Missouri, and a leap of $1.32 for western Pennsylvania, from December.
Ohio farmers got the next-highest average price. Buckeye State dairymen received $23.68, up $1.15 from December. In New York, the January price averaged $23.64, up $1.06 from December.
Indiana dairy farmers received $23.03 in January, up $1.12. Michigan was next in line, with a January average of $22.94, up $1.22 from the month before.
In the Corn Belt states of Kansas, Nebraska and northern Missouri, dairymen received an average of $22.77 in January, up $1.34. Western Texas was right behind, at $22.73, up $1.61 cents from December.
And in California, not a part of the federal milk marketing order system, the January mailbox price averaged $22.04, up $1.44 from a month earlier. Once more, New Mexico dairy farmers had the distinction of receiving the lowest mailbox price of any reporting area. They were paid an average of $21.53 in January, $1.54 more than in December.
Across all federal milk marketing orders, January's mailbox price averaged $23.47. That was up $1.43 from December, and up $3.29 from the $20.18 average in January of 2013.
Mailbox prices are the actual, net amounts farmers see on their checks in their mailboxes. The AMS collects these prices through its federal milk order market 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 3.85 percent, while the average protein test was 3.20 percent. Other solids in the milk averaged 5.72 percent.
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