The Mailbox 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 reports the net prices received by dairy farmers at their farm gates, in their mailboxes. It includes all payments received for milk sold and all deductions for costs associated with marketing the milk. All payments include, where applicable: over-order premiums; quality, component, breed, and volume premiums; payouts from State-run over-order pricing pools, including the Northeast Dairy Compact, when it was operating; payouts from superpool organizations or marketing agencies in common; payouts from programs offering seasonal production bonuses; and monthly distributions of cooperative earnings. Annual distributions of cooperatives earnings – 13th checks or equity distributions are not included. The mailbox price also does not include any Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) payments.

Costs associated with marketing milk include, where applicable: hauling charges; cooperative dues, assessments, equity deductions/capital retains, and reblends; the FMO deductions for marketing services; Federally mandated assessments such as the National Promotion Program and budget deficit reduction, when they applied; and advertising/promotion assessments above the national program level. Other deductions, such as loan, insurance or feed mill assignments are not included.

The FMO market administrators (MA) collect the information for specific reporting areas in their order(s) using regularly submitted producer payrolls of both cooperatives and handlers with non-member supplies. A reporting area can vary from part of a State to several States combined. Reporting areas were selected to include the major supply areas of FMO and other supply areas for which there was an interest to report and for which at least 75 percent of FMO milk could be reported. Information for a particular reporting area may be reported by more than one MA. The MA submit reports to the Market Information Branch (MIB) in Dairy Programs headquarters office at the end of the following month; January price information submitted on February 28th. The MIB develops a summary report for all the reporting areas and calculates FMO system-wide information. The mailbox price for the reporting area and all FMO areas combined are weighted averages and are reported at the area-average milk component tests. This report, including similar information for California submitted by that State’s Department of Food and Agriculture, is published on the Dairy Programs Milk Marketing Order Statistics web site.

The following Mailbox Prices Reports are carried on the web site: current month information, generally available around the 10th of the third following month (January data in April); monthly information for the current year, to date; and, historical monthly and annual information from January 1995 to date.