The Announced Cooperative Class I Prices Report is one of the data series of over-order price information collected by Dairy Programs via the administration of the Federal milk order (FMO) program. See Over-Order Prices.

This data series serves as an early indication of the level and trend of Class I over-order charges. The information is obtained from price announcements sent by the major cooperative or pricing agency to the handlers (fluid milk processors) in selected city markets who buy raw milk from them. The Class I prices in these announcements generally are higher than the FMO established minimum Class I prices. These over-order prices include charges for various services performed by the cooperative for the processor. These price announcements may include additional charges for services or milk deliveries beyond contract specifications, credits that processors can earn per contract criteria, or credits that may be given to meet competition. These prices have not been verified as having been actually paid by processors.

Cooperatives generally issue their price announcements shortly after the FMO prices are issued, around the 23rd of the previous month. FMO market administrators use these announcements to prepare monthly reports for assigned cities which are submitted to the Market Information Branch (MIB) in the Dairy Programs headquarters office. Each report contains the FMO Class I price for the city and the announced cooperative Class I price and any additional applicable information. The MIB assembles these reports into a summary report for all selected cities and calculates differences between the FMO and cooperative prices and all-city simple averages. The information is published in the Dairy Programs Milk Marketing Order Statistics web site and in the weekly “Dairy Market News”.

The following reports on Announced Cooperative Class I Prices are carried on the web site: current month information, generally available around the 28th of the previous month; monthly information for the current year to date; historical individual city monthly information for the past 10 years; and, historical all-city average monthly differences for the past 25 years.