Another Rise in Milk Prices Expected Today

Shoppers, beware. Milk prices are headed up again. The cost of wholesale milk will jump 13 cents per gallon today, and stores tend to quickly pass such increases on to shoppers. The California Department of Food and Agriculture establishes the price farmers get paid, basing it on a complicated formula that uses the wholesale cost of cheese on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The price recently has been influenced by a production decline in California blamed on cool, wet El Nino conditions. The state, which evaluates the price every two months, has raised milk’s wholesale price three times in the last six months. The price will now be 46 cents more per gallon than in June, the low point for the year. Meanwhile, the retail price has soared to more than $4 a gallon at some chain stores.