The dairy-herd slaughter slowed milk production.

Milk production in May increased 2.7% above a year earlier, compared to a 7% increase last winter, and the Agriculture Department forecast that production will drop below year-ago levels this summer. The $1.8-billion program aims to decrease milk production by sending more than 1.5 million cows to slaughter or into export over an 18-month period that began April 1. Producers not in the herd program will continue to expand milk output, but profit margins will be held below what they were in the early 1980s, the USDA said.