Lawmakers got a firsthand account of what’s happening on U.S. dairy farms. The House Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Livestock and Foreign Agriculture conducted its first hearing this year, choosing dairy, which is suffering its fifth year of low milk prices and second year of trade-related challenges.

NMPF president and CEO, Jim Mulhern, testified that “Dairy’s challenges reverberate through the U.S. economy, and it’s appropriate that lawmakers put dairy first on its 2019 agenda.”

Signup for the Dairy Margin Coverage program begins June 17 and the USDA’s new “decision tool,” designed to help farmers determine their appropriate coverage level, is now on USDA’s Farm Service Agency’s website.

The Agriculture Department announced the April Federal order Class III benchmark milk price at $15.96 per hundredweight, up 92 cents from March, $1.49 above April 2018, and the highest Class III price since September 2018. The four month average stands at $14.71, up from $14.02 a year ago and compares to $16.17 in 2017.

Late Friday morning Class III futures portended a May price at $16.38; June, $16.55; July, $16.74; and August at $17.05, with a peak of $17.19 in September.

The April Class IV price is $15.72, up a penny from March, $2.24 above a year ago, and the highest April Class IV since 2014. The Class IV average now stands at $15.69, up from $13.13 a year ago and $15.03 in 2017.

You’ll recall that preliminary data showed March 50-State milk output at 18.9 billion pounds, down 0.4 percent from March 2018 and that was evidenced in the May 2 Dairy Products report which pegged March cheese output at 1.1 billion pounds, up 11 percent from February but 0.7 percent below March 2018. Year-to-date cheese output is now at 3.2 billion pounds, down 0.3percent from a year ago.

Cheese output had been moving relentlessly higher since September 2015, but ended its 28-month streak in January, according to the Daily Dairy Report. The DDR stated “Although USDA initially reported year-over-year increases in cheese output in January and February; the agency revised upward its assessment of 2018 cheese output, resulting in year-over-year declines in the first two months of this year.”

U.S. churns gave us 174.8 million pounds of butter, up 10.3 million pounds or 6.3 percent from February but 7 million pounds or 3.9 percent below a year ago. YTD butter is at 529 million pounds, down 0.5 percent from this time in 2018.

Yogurt output, at 398.6 million pounds, was up 2.2 percent from a year ago, with YTD at 1.1 billion pounds, down 1.3 percent.

The U.S. All-Milk price averaged $17.50 per hundredweight (cwt.), up 70 cents from February and $1.80 above March 2018.

Butter closed Friday at $2.2725 per pound, up a quarter-cent on the week but 8 cents below a year ago, with 25 sales on the week, 52 for the month of April.

The latest data indicates that March Chinese imports were up 4.8 percent from 2018, “a bit light in comparison to expectations,” according to FC Stone dairy broker Dave Kurzawski in the May 6 Dairy Radio Now broadcast.

He believes the figure underestimates food grade imports going into China. FC Stone had expected something like 9 percent, he said, but he points out that about 80 percent of the imports are food grade and most come from Oceania.

New Zealand exports were up 50percent in February, according to Kurzawski, and up 80 percent in March and what may have weighed down the Chinese estimate was the feed grade side of the equation. He blamed the African swine fever situation for the lower imports which has especially hurt U.S. whey exports to that country.

Tariff issues also remain between the U.S. and China. An FC Stone staffer in their Singapore office recently returned from China and described the tone there as “quietly pessimistic,” according to Kurzawski, who also reported that China’s first quarter gross national product showed a nice 6.4 percent growth.

“We don’t know how accurate that number is,” he said, “but it did come in stronger than expected. Bottom line; “People in China are still eating food.”

Speaking of Oceania; DMN reports that dairy industry leaders in Australia are urging dairy producers to increase milk production. “The overall trend the last decade or so has been lower milk output in Australia; the Australian population has grown during the same period. Concerns being voiced are that milk production increases will better buffer a potential need for Australians to import more dairy products as a matter of necessity,” says DMN.

Very severe dry weather has arrived in New Zealand, especially the North Island as the season winds down and has “noticeably impacted milk production,” according to DMN. “Many herds are now being dried off early in response. The overall season is still expected to yield more milk than last season, as most of the seasonal milk has already been produced. But it increasingly appears the season which began with a bang, may end with a whimper,” concludes DMN.

Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) members accepted 12 offers of export assistance from CWT this week to help capture sales for 480,608 pounds of Cheddar cheese, 357,149 pounds of whole milk powder, and 480,608 pounds of cream cheese.

These products are going to customers in Asia, the Middle East and South America from May through August and raised CWT’s 2019 exports to 26.59 million pounds of American-type and Swiss cheeses, 3.96 million pounds of butter (82percent milkfat), 1.94 million pounds of cream cheese and 23.44 million pounds of whole milk powder.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Lee Mielke may write to him in care of this publication.