The USDA just released the advanced Class 1 milk price for November of $17.33 per hundredweight. This price reflects a 19.2% decline year-over-year, but an 11.6% sequential increase from October’s level. As I have pointed out once before, there is an inverse relationship between the change in milk prices and DF’s gross margins so the fact that the average milk price for the first two months of the company’s 4Q08 have declined nearly 24% should benefit DF’s quarterly gross margins.
