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MINNEAPOLIS - Mailbox milk prices were generally lower across the board this past May. The only exceptions were Florida and the Southeast states of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi, according to the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS).
As usual, farmers in the Sunshine State received the highest average, $27.41 per hundredweight. That was up 28 cents from April, and up from $21.67 a year earlier.
In the Southeast, farmers were paid $26.12 in May. That was up from $25.83 in April, and up from $20.41 in May of 2013.
Among the states recording lower mailbox prices were Minnesota and Wisconsin. In the Gopher State, the May average finished at $24.47, down $1.59 from April's $26.06, but up from $20.15 a year earlier. Minnesota recorded the largest month-to month drop: $1.59 per hundredweight.
Wisconsin dairy producers received an average mailbox price of $24.38 in May. That was down $1.53 from April's $25.91, but up from $20.16 the year before.
In the Hawkeye State, Iowa farmers were paid an average of $24.83 for last May's milk. In April they were paid $1.14 more, or $25.97. A year earlier, they received $20.21.
Elsewhere in the Midwest, farmers in southern Missouri averaged $24.63 for their May milk. That was off a penny from April' price.
In Illinois, the May price fell $1.01, to $24.80, from $25.81. And in Indiana, the average May mailbox price was $23.87, down from $24.51 in April.
One state north, in Michigan, farmers were paid $23.90 for their May milk. That was down from $24.66 the month before.
Over in Ohio, the May average was $24.45. That was down from $25.38 in April. The May average in western Pennsylvania came in at $24.87, down from $25.77. In eastern Pennsylvania, the May price averaged $25.12, down from $25.58 a month earlier.
The Appalachian states - Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia - saw the May mailbox price drop a penny, to $25.77. But that was $5.73 higher than a year earlier.
In New York, Empire State dairy farmers got an average of $25.16 for their May milk. That was down 50 cents from April, but up $5.33 from May of 2013.
Nearby, in the New England states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont, the May mailbox price averaged $25.91, which was off 50 cents from April's $26.41.
Over to the west, in the Corn Belt states - Kansas, Nebraska and northern Missouri - the May price averaged $23.32. That was down from $24.51 in April.
Washington and Oregon farmers were paid $23.85 for their May production, down from $24.97 in April. In California, not a part of the federal milk marketing order system, the May price was $21.72, down from $23.13 in April.
Dairy producers in western Texas were paid an average of $22.96 in May, down from $24.42 the month before. And in New Mexico, the May average was $21.77, the lowest price in any of the federal orders.
Across all federal milk marketing orders, the May mailbox milk price averaged $24.37. That compares to $25.33 in April, and to $19.63 in May 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 May, the U.S. average butterfat test was 3.66 percent, while the average protein test was 3.08 percent. Other solids in the milk averaged 5.74 percent.[[In-content Ad]]

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