For the owner of a 700-cow dairy, the math of 2025 and 2026 isn’t just a line item on a spreadsheet — it’s a $275,000 hit to the bottom line. In an industry where margins are often measured in pennies, a slump of that magnitude can feel like a recession. But according to Ben Laine, Terrain’s senior dairy analyst, what we are seeing isn’t necessarily a total industry collapse; it is a high-stakes evolution. In a recent deep-dive into the dairy markets, Laine dissected the inve

NEW YORK STATE — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is encouraging dairy producers to enroll in Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC), an important safety net program that helps offset milk and feed price differences. This year’s DMC signup began Jan. 12 and the deadline to enroll is Feb. 26, 2026. “We encourage producers to join the 472 dairy operations in New York that have already signed up for this important safety net program in advance of the deadline,” said USDA Farm Ser

U.S. milk production in 2025 reached a record-high 231.5 billion pounds. The last production peak was 226.4 billion pounds in 2022, followed by two declining years in 2023 and 2024. Class IV futures traded higher in January. Butter and dry milk came in at $17.85 for the second half of the year; the first half of the year on the CME averaged $16.90. Nonfat dry milk (NDM) has moved upward. The spot NDM price rose 13.5 cents during trading in the last week of January, closing at