Market News

Milk futures mostly lower, cash dairy mixed

Milk futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange ended mostly lower Friday taking back some earlier week gains.

March Class III milk unchanged at $15.03.  April down four cents at $15.29.  May eight cents lower at $15.39.  June down 12 cents at $15.58.  July through November contracts were four to 16 cents lower.

Dry whey up $0.0075 at $0.33.  

Blocks down $0.0125 at $1.57.  One trade was made at that price. 

Barrels unchanged at $1.5650.  Seven trades were made ranging from $1.5625 to $1.5650.

Butter down $0.0150 at $2.2650.  One trade was made at that price. 

Nonfat dry milk unchanged at $0.9575.  Five trades were made ranging from $0.95 to $0.9575.

The USDA says the amount of cheese in cold storage during February was up on the year while butter was down, both were up on the month.

Cheese stocks totaled more than 1.3 billion pounds, unchanged from January but up four percent from last year, with the largest increase in non-American cheese stocks.  Butter stocks were pegged at more than 242 million pounds, up nearly 15 percent from January but down nearly nine percent from 2018.

The USDA says cash dairy prices ended the week lower for all product categories except blocks and barrels.  In the weekly dairy recap, the agency says butter production is fairly active with inventories stable to increasing.  Barrel and cheese curd producers in the Midwest are reporting positive sales and near-future demand growth.  Fluid milk is readily available while flooding and winter storms caused issues in the Central and Mountain regions.   African swine fever, tariff effects and increasing production capacity are each exerting downward pressure on whey prices.