According to the latest USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service – Agricultural Prices report The average price for milk was $19.80 per cwt, 60 cents above the August price but $2.40 below September 2022. Prices received for milk cows for dairy herd replacement averaged $1,820 per head as of October 1, 2023.

All hay prices in Iowa averaged $169.00 per ton in September. This was $8.00 above the August price but $2.00 below the September 2022 price. The September 2023 alfalfa hay price, at $175.00, was $8.00 above the previous month but $6.00 below September 2022. The average price received for other hay during September was $149.00 per ton. This was $9.00 above the August price and $15.00 above September last year.

The average price received by farmers for corn during September 2023 in Iowa was $5.22 per bushel this was 55 cents below the August price and $2.20 below September 2022.

In the October issue of the Daily livestock Report, the Steiner Consulting group did a great job of highlighting the impact of dairy beef. They drilled down on the fact that about half of the US cow slaughter is made up of dairy cows.

The reason for this is that there are far fewer dairy cows than beef cows. On January 1, USDA estimated the size of the beef cow herd at 28.9 million head while the dairy cow inventory was 9.4 million. The reason why there is such a large share of dairy cows in the annual slaughter is that producers tend to replace dairy cows much more often than beef cows.

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