Butterfat

As previously announced August 19th, the Federal Milk Marketing Order Advanced Class 1 base price for September settled at $17.04 per hundredweight, down $1.72 per hundredweight from the previous month, and down $1.66 per hundredweight from the same month a year ago.

Both the price of butterfat and protein were down in September compared to August as the price of nonfat solids improved some.

Butterfat was down 4 cents to $1.47 a pound as protein took a greater hit, down 17 cents to $2.66 per pound.

Nonfat solids rose from $1.34 per pound in August to $1.53 per pound in September, while other solids remained unchanged at 41 cents per pound.

You can find a lot more information about the milk prices in specific areas on the report at ProgressiveDairy.com and through a link on our website.

For example, a small study published in 2015 in the journal Appetite found that cottage cheese suppressed hunger as much as eggs, which are considered one of the most satiating foods.

Cottage cheese comes in full fat, which is 4% milk fat; low fat, 2%; and nonfat varieties.

Compared with full-fat cottage cheese, lower-fat options save you a few calories, which may be beneficial if you're looking to lose weight.

It can vary by brand, but the difference between nonfat and full-fat cottage cheese is about 30 calories per half cup.

Nutrition information in these brands and the prices are for a half cup serving.

Two top picks.

Daisy low-fat 2% milk fat small curd.

It's $1.13 per serving.

GLP-1s.

Butterfat.

Milk components.

We're getting all in on both the health trends or are they health fads when it comes to the American consumer as well as the American dairy farmer.

And then we come back to 90% of the milk is priced on multiple component pricing.

So the dairy farmers are getting the signal, send me more milk.

Butterfat, send me more protein.

Now, we're in a butterfat surplus as of August of 2025.

And it's not just the volume that's changed.

Butterfat has gone up 15.2% and protein has gone up 17.4%.

So milk has transformed quite a bit.

Cheese has changed maybe not quite as significantly, but we're still getting 1.6 pounds more of cheese per 100 pounds of milk.

And then we're launching new flavors that are sort of leveled up a little bit with the addition of these different complementary inclusions and sauces.

I know that Haagen-Dazs, when they launched, one of the big things was the higher milk fat percentage.

That was what Rose and Rubin were doing in the 60s in the Bronx.

They looked at the ice cream market and were like, this isn't enough.

And now, obviously, there's a lot of other competitors who are sort of honestly doing that same premise, and that's exactly how they launched too.

Yes.

With all of the pints now, are they all still this high milk fat percentage? And also from the formulation standpoint, what hurdles does that cause, having a higher milk fat percentage? Because a lot of the ice creams on the market are not technically ice creams, as a lot of people like to say.

They're frozen dairy desserts, which just means – for our listeners with less than 10% milk fat, I believe is the current regulations.

[upbeat music] Good evening, everyone, and welcome to The Real Science Exchange, the podcast where leading scientists and industry professionals meet over a few drinks to discuss the latest ideas and trends in animal nutrition.

Uh, today we're gonna be talk about feeding for success, aligning dairy nutrition with genetic potential for milk fat.

And joining me today as panelists is Dr. Adam Locke from Michigan State University, Dr. Alicia Bales from Caledonia Farmers Elevator, and Nate Elzinga from Caledonia Farmers, uh, Elevator.

And we understand that the Caledonia Farmers Elevator were the big winners last night at the casino night here at the Tri-State Nutrition Conference.

So from a dairy farm myself like Nate, but from, from back at home in England in Devon.

Had a small dairy farm when I was growing up there with my mom and dad.

Um, uh, everything I've done for a long time now is fats, fatty acids, and we've taken a lot of different, uh, turns through, through that from, you know, trying to understand milk fat depression back in the day when a free five milk fat was pretty good.

Yeah.