The USDA has announced that the National Agricultural Statistics Service had been collecting price data on nonfat dry milk sales that did not accurately reflect current market prices for the product.

The problem occurred when one plant included fixed forward prices on sales that occurred 30 days or more before the sale actually occurred. Such prices are not to be included in the price and volume reports that NASS collects each month.

NASS officials will now go back 52 weeks to review pricing data for other nonfat milk sales in an attempt to clarify the veracity of its pricing data. Those reported prices are part of the information used to calculate the price that farmers receive each month in their milk checks.

New York Farm Bureau and members of Congress are urging USDA for transparency in the reporting process.