Market News

Milk futures lower, cash dairy trade mixed

Milk futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange continued to sell off Thursday while cash markets were mixed.

January Class III milk was two cents higher at $20.25. February 45 cents lower at $20.86. March down 63 cents at $21.69. April down 47 cents at $21.47. May through July 30 to 44 cents lower.

Dry whey up $0.02 at $0.80. One sale was made at that price.

Blocks unchanged at $1.8450.

Barrels down $0.0875 at $1.8175.

Butter up $0.0175 at $2.90. Two trades were made at $2.8975.

Nonfat dry milk down $0.04 at $1.81. One trade was made at $1.8150.

The USDA says December’s dairy cow slaughter was 267,800 head, 22,500 more than in November, but 5,700 less than December 2020.

The preliminary total for the 2021 dairy cow slaughter was 3.106 million head, 429,000 above the 2020 total.