Heifer prices vault far into record territory
- amy55735
- May 19
- 1 min read
It’s a classic example of supply and demand. Dairy heifer inventories have shrunk to a two-decade low, and that has caused prices to vault to record highs.
Four times each year, USDA publishes “Prices Received for Milk Cows.” The federal agency posted its new average value at $2,870 per head, in late April 2025. That’s the highest figure in the history of the series published by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) in its monthly Agricultural Prices report. As dairy farmers can appreciate, that $2,870 figure represents a baseline price for replacements, as premium pregnant heifers are fetching upward of $4,000 per head at auction these days.
Two different mountain peaks
When looking back into dairy history, October 2014 was the very first time that dairy replacement values for soon-to-be cows pushed past the $2,000 figure. That represented an extremely high peak from the January 2013 average that was a meager $1,370 per head.
Corey Geiger
May 19, 2025
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