Market News

Another good week in the dairy markets

A quiet close to the week in the dairy markets on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Friday.  Cash cheese and butter unchanged, nonfat dry milk increased a quarter-cent.  Class III futures were narrowly mixed.

For the week, cash cheese barrels slipped a half-cent, blocks gained 3.5 cents, butter increased 2.25 cents and nonfat dry milk picked-up a half cent.  Class III futures for May gained 61 cents, June increased 97 cents and October added a dime.

Milk production is strong across the country and a lot of that milk is going into cheese.  Dairy Market News says many cheese plants in all regions are operating at full production to take advantage of the strong milk supplies.  Demand is strong although some of the cheese is going into storage for use later in the year.  Barrel inventories are tight so some plants have altered production to take advantage of the inverted barrel-to-block price.

Organic milk supplies continue to be tight, organic cream is moving into Wisconsin from other parts of the country to cover organic dairy product production.  The weighted advertised price for a half-gallon of organic milk is $3.75 for the week, down a nickel from the previous week but 50 cents above a year ago.  A half-gallon of conventional milk cost $1.87 down 26 cents from the previous week putting the organic-to-conventional spread at $1.88 up 21 cents from the previous week.

The final 2014 mailbox price for milk in the Federal orders comes in at $24.04 per hundredweight, $3.98 above the 2013 price.  Florida had the highest price at $27.07 while New Mexico had the lowest: $21.50.  Compared to 2013; Southern Missouri had the largest increase last year, $4.63 per hundredweight while New Mexico and Indiana had the smallest increase: $3.57.