Market News

Butter gains two cents

Cash cheese and nonfat dry milk held steady while butter gained two cents on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Monday.  One unfilled bid set the new butter price.  Class III futures drifted a bit lower on the lack of activity in the cheese market.

More than 10.7 billion pounds of milk was received from Federally-pooled producers in March, 7 percent less than a year ago.  33 percent of the milk went to Class I utilization, 15 percent was Class II, 36 percent went into Class III use and 16 percent was for Class IV.  The weighted average statistical uniform price was $16.08 per hundredweight down 24 cents from February and $8.28 below March of last year.

Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) has accepted 8 requests for export assistance from Dairy Farmers of America, Northwest Dairy Association (Darigold), and Tillamook County Creamery Association who have contracts to sell 1.122 million pounds of Cheddar, Gouda, and Monterey Jack cheese and 85,980 pounds of whole milk powder to customers in Asia, the Middle East, and Central and South America. The product has been contracted for delivery in the period from April through October 2015.

Year-to-date, CWT has assisted member cooperatives who have contracts to sell 28.878 million pounds of cheese, 24.388 million pounds of butter, and 8.739 million pounds of whole milk powder to twenty eight countries on five continents.