Market News

Milk futures, cash dairy mostly higher

Class III milk futures at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange closed higher Wednesday supported by strength in the cash market.

March milk closed unchanged at $14.28. April was up $0.02 at $14.47.  May closed $0.12 higher to $14.45.  June milk was up $0.15 at $14.84.  The rest of the 2018 milk futures closed five to eight cents a hundredweight higher.

Grade AA Butter was up $0.0025 at $2.1875. Twelve loads were sold ranging from $2.1725 to $2.1875.

Barrels were down $0.005 at $1.5125. Five loads were sold ranging from $1.5125 to $1.5150.

40 # blocks were up $0.0225 at $1.5650. One load was sold at $1.57.

Nonfat dry milk was up $0.0025 at $0.69.

Dry whey remained unchanged at $0.2925 cents.

 

For April, the USDA has set the base Class I milk price at $14.10 per hundredweight, down $0.74 from March, with the base Class I skim price at $5.82, up $0.44.

The USDA reports cash butter for the week ending March 17th averaged $2.17 per pound, $0.01 lower than the previous week. 40 pound blocks of cheddar were pegged at $1.57, $0.012 higher. 500 pound barrels averaged $1.52, a decrease of $0.024. Dry whey came out at $0.241, down $.014. Nonfat dry milk averaged $0.688, down $.018.