Public Law 106-532 passed on 2000 required persons engaged in the manufacture and sale of selected dairy products to report certain information including the price, quantity, and moisture content where applicable. Any manufacturer that processes and markets less than 1 million pounds of dairy products per year is exempt from the sales reporting requirements. USDA completed the rule making process on June 17, 2008 creating the Dairy Products Mandatory Reporting Program. This program collects, evaluates aggregates, verifies, and disseminates dairy products sales information to the public.

The Mandatory Price Reporting Act of 2010 was passed on September 27, 2010, the act required USDA to release dairy product sales information on or before Wednesday at 3:00 pm (unless affected by a Federal Holiday). The act also required the establishment of an electronic mandatory sales reporting system for dairy products reported under Public Law 106-532.

On February 15, 2011, USDA issued a final rule to establish an electronic reporting system to collect dairy product sales data previously collected by the National Agricultural Statistics Service and to more timely information. Under the final rule, the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) developed an electronic system and assumed all data collection responsibilities for mandatory reporting of sales information for selected dairy commodities.