October 16, 2026
On October 8, 2026, the Canadian Dairy Commission (CDC) communicated the results of its Cost of Production (COP) survey to stakeholders Footnote 1 . Stakeholders were given until October 15, 2026, to notify the CDC whether they wished to invoke the Exceptional Circumstances (EC) process. Criteria #2 and #3 for exceptional circumstances were not met. However, stakeholders could invoke exceptional circumstances under Criterion #1: an unexpected event has occurred that was not accounted for in the most recent COP data.
The CDC received requests to invoke the EC process. As a result, the National Pricing Formula (NPF) will be suspended pending consultations with stakeholders.
The CDC Board will hold pricing consultations with stakeholder organizations from October 19th to October 21st, 2026, to determine the farmgate price of milk and the support price for butter adjustments scheduled for February 1, 2027.
Final price adjustments for 2027 will be announced no later than October 30, 2026, in order to provide a sufficient notification period for the supply chain.
For more information on how the COP survey is conducted and how it applies to the farmgate price of milk, you can consult the CDC’s Process for the Annual Cost of Production Survey and Pricing Milk at the Farm Level. The results of the COP survey for 2025 are also available.