August Federal Order Class I Price is $21.43

The Agriculture Department announced the August Federal order Class I base milk price this morning at $21.43 per hundredweight, up 40 cents from July, and $5.66 above August 2010. That’s the highest it has been since November 2007 and equates to about $1.84 per gallon.

 The 2011 Class I base average now stands at $18.91, up from $14.74 a year ago and $10.95 in 2009. The Class III advanced pricing factor became the “higher of” in driving the Class I value and National Milk’s Roger Cryan does not predict a MILC payment for producers. 

The NASS-surveyed butter price averaged $2.0291 per pound, down 10 1/2-cents from July. Nonfat dry milk averaged $1.6571, up a penny. Cheese averaged $2.1308, up 33.7 cents, and dry whey averaged 54.7 cents, up 2.7 cents.