Milk Prices, Costs of Nutrients, Margins, and Comparison of Feedstuffs Prices

April F. White, Graduate Research Associate, Department of Animal Sciences,The Ohio State University

Milk prices

In the last issue, the Class III futures for February and March were at $20.21/cwt and $21.32/cwt, respectively. Class III milk closed slightly higher than predicted for February at $20.91/cwt, with protein and butterfat at $2.32/lb and $3.02/lb, respectively. Compared to January, the component price for protein decreased by about $0.27/lb, while butterfat price is about $0.73/lb higher.The improved butterfat price should help to offset increased feed costs due to changes in global feed ingredient markets. In this issue, the Class III future for April is $23.29/cwt, continuing to increase in May to $23.50/cwt as we approach summer.

Nutrient prices

It can be helpful to compare the prices in Table 1 to the 5-year averages. The current price of NEL and MP are about 60 and 42% higher than the 5-year averages ($0.08/Mcal and $0.38/lb, respectively), while pe-NDF is about 60% lower than the 5-year average ($0.08/lb). These nutrient costs align well with recent trends, and although nutrient cost per cow may be higher than in previous issues, the Cow-Jones Index is fairing well.

To estimate profitability at these nutrient prices, the Cow-Jones Index was used for average US cows weighing 1500 lb and producing milk with 3.9% fat and 3.2% protein. For March’s issue, the income over nutrient cost (IONC) for cows milking 70 lb/day and 85 lb/day is about $13.04 and $13.53/cwt, respectively. As a word of caution, these estimates of IONC do not account for the cost of replacements or dry cows, or for profitability changes related to culling cows.

Table 1. Prices of dairy nutrients for Ohio dairy farms, March 26, 2022.

Economic Value of Feeds

Results of the Sesame analysis for central Ohio on March 26, 2022 are presented in Table 2. Detailed results for all 26 feed commodities are reported. The lower and upper limits mark the 75% confidence range for the predicted (break-even) prices. Feeds in the “Appraisal Set” were those for which we didn’t have a local price or were adjusted to reflect their true (“Corrected”) value in a lactating diet. One must remember that SESAME™ compares all commodities at one specific point in time. Thus, the results do not imply that the bargain feeds are cheap on a historical basis. Feeds for which a price was not reported were added to the appraisal set in this issue.

Table 2. Actual, breakeven (predicted) and 75% confidence limits of 26 feed commodities used on Ohio dairy farms, March 26, 2022.
For convenience, Table 3 summarizes the economic classification of feeds according to their outcome in the SESAME™ analysis. Feedstuffs that have gone up in price based on current nutrient values, or in other words, moved a column to the right since the last issue are in oversized text. Conversely, feedstuffs that have moved to the left (i.e., decreased in value) are undersized text. These shifts (i.e., feeds moving columns to the left or right) in price are only temporary changes relative to other feedstuffs within the last two months and do not reflect historical prices. Feeds added to the appraisal set were removed from this table.

Table 3. Partitioning of feedstuffs in Ohio, March 26, 2022.

Bargains At Breakeven Overpriced
Gluten meal 41% Cottonseed meal Mechanically extracted canola meal
Feaher meal Corn, ground, dry Soybean meal - expeller
Corn silage Wheat bran

48% Soybean meal

Distillers dried grains Alfalfa hay - 40% NDF 44% Soybean meal
Gluten feed   Solvent extracted canola meal
Meat meal  

Soybean hulls

Hominy   Whole, roasted soybeans
Wheat middlings   Blood meal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

As coined by Dr. St-Pierre, I must remind the readers that these results do not mean that you can formulate a balanced diet using only feeds in the “bargains” column. Feeds in the “bargains” column offer a savings opportunity, and their usage should be maximized within the limits of a properly balanced diet. In addition, prices within a commodity type can vary considerably because of quality differences as well as non-nutritional value added by some suppliers in the form of nutritional services, blending, terms of credit, etc. Also, there are reasons that a feed might be a very good fit in your feeding program while not appearing in the “bargains” column. For example, your nutritionist might be using some molasses in your rations for reasons other than its NEL and MP contents.

Appendix

For those of you who use the 5-nutrient group values (i.e., replace metabolizable protein by rumen degradable protein and digestible rumen undegradable protein), see Table 4 below.

Table 4. Prices of dairy nutrients using the 5-nutrient solution for Ohio dairy farms, March 26, 2022.