Milk prices have increase greatly since the first time I started keeping track of the milk pricing report that lists retail milk prices across the country. I remember watching the milk prices creep up a few cents here and there, with the average price somewhere around $2.31 a gallon for whole milk. Today things are a little different.
The simple average of milk prices for a gallon of whole milk across the country is $3.82. And many cities find milk prices well over $4. That simple average has held up since the begining of the year, so while some cities are still showing increases in milk prices month by month, other cities have show some slight decreases, allowing that average to hold steady.
My own region, not far from Philadelphia, PA, has some of the highest prices. It is one of the cities that comes in at more than $4, or $4.03 to be exact. Most of the time I find milk here at no less than $3.99, so this seems accurate. Organic or hormone free milk costs up to $1 more.
New Orleans, LA has the highest priced milk at nearly $5 a gallon ($4.95 to be exact). I can imagine paying that much for a regular gallon of whole milk, but then again just a couple of years ago I couldn’t image milk costing more than $3.
Dallas, TX offers the lowest prices on whole milk, at a very inexpensive $2.83 per gallon.
And in Cincinnati, OH, the next lowest city, a gallon will cost you just $3.13, although that price in itself is a big jump from the month before (August 2008) when it was just $2.79.
These official retail milk prices are collected by Federal milk order market administrators and published by the Agricultural Marketing Service of the USDA.
Here are some other cities in the survey.
Boston, MA: $3.81
Hartford, CT :$3.83
Omaha, NE : $3.88
Washington, DC: $3.99
Click here for more articles by Mary Ann Romans.
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