News

Dairy markets hold strong

Cash cheese increased a little on the Chicago Board of Trade on Thursday.  Class III futures followed suit.  The cooler temperatures across the country has milk production holding steady in the Midwest, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Regions.  Dairy Market News says production is declining in the Southeast as cow comfort declines.  No loads exported out of Florida this week.  Western milk production is also slipping as temperatures hit triple-digits in the Central Valley.  Although some are surprised that production hasn’t declined more crediting high quality feed.

National Dairy Products Sales Report for the week ending July 26 has cheddar cheese blocks averaging $2.01 per pounds down 0.1 cent; barrels increased 2.5 cents to average $2.05; butter increased 4.2 cents to $2.41; nonfat dry milk decreased 3.2 cents to average $1.84 per pound and dry whey 0.2 cents higher at 68.9 cents per pound.

Preliminary Index of Prices Received by Farmers for July has the all-milk price increasing 20 cents to $23.40 per hundredweight.  Meanwhile prices for corn, soybeans and hay all went down in July.  The preliminary milk-to-feed ratio for July is 2.44 compared to 2.2 in June and 1.53 in July of 2013.