Market News

Dairy just keeps nudging lower

Cash cheese barrels increased a penny to $1.5875 on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Wednesday, blocks held steady at $1.6075, butter lost another 5.5 cents to $1.555 and nonfat dry milk slipped a penny to 99.5 cents per pound. Class III futures for December, January, February and March saw slight increases, April was unchanged and May through December contracts were lower.

A lot of milk being delivered to dairy plants these days, cheese makers and butter makers are running at or near capacity with extra milk going to the dryers. Once the holiday orders are filled, most expect a further decline in prices.  Most expect it will be months before milk production falls back to meet demand.

 

National Dairy Products Sales Report for the week ending December 13: cash cheese blocks averaged $1.77 per pound down 11.5 cents from the previous week. Barrels averaged $1.70 down 12.7 cents, butter decreased 2.6 cents to average $1.96, nonfat dry milk was 5.5 cents lower at $1.26 per pound and dry whey held steady with the previous week at 58.5 cents per pound.

 

The Base Class I Price for January milk is $18.58 per hundredweight down $3.95 from the previous month and the lowest Base since May, 2013. The Base Skim Milk Price for Class I for January is $11.35 down $4.04 from the previous month and the lowest Base Skim price since August of 2012.