USDA Revises June Class III Price Due to NASS Reporting Error
On Tuesday, July 3, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) published a correction to the June 29 weekly Dairy Products prices report. The correction was due to an incorrect calculation of the price for cheddar cheese in 500-lb. barrels adjusted to 38% moisture content. Following release of the corrected NASS report, USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service announced a revision to the June Class III price originally announced June 29.The NASS correction resulted in an increase in the monthly average price of cheddar cheese to $1.8561 per pound (from the originally announced $1.8505). This in turn resulted in an increase in the federal order protein price for June to $3.7059 per pound, up from the $3.6879 announced June 29, which also increased the June Class III skim price by 6 cents to $14.93 per hundredweight. For statistical purposes only, the June Class III price for milk with 3.5% butterfat increased 6 cents to $20.17. No other class or component prices for June were affected by this NASS correction.
"We believe it is essential that USDA make every effort to avoid this type of error, which affects previously announced federal order minimum class and component prices," said IDFA Chief Economist Bob Yonkers. "We plan to work with USDA to explore options to ensure this does not happen in the future."
Posted July 9, 2007