Market News

Milk futures, cash dairy trade lower

Milk futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange started the week mostly lower ahead of USDA’s monthly reports and as cash markets trended lower.

January Class III milk was a penny higher at $20.30. February nine cents lower at $20.45. March down 20 cents at $21.55. April a dime lower at $21.43. May through July one to 14 cents lower.

Dry whey unchanged at $0.80.

Blocks down $0.0125 at $1.7950. One sale was made at $1.8250.

Barrels down $0.0375 at $1.7750. Three trades were made from $1.7750 to $1.8175.

Butter down $0.0875 at $2.8475.

Nonfat dry milk down $0.0025 at $1.8125. Two trades were made at $1.8125 and $1.8150.

The USDA says total natural cheese and other cheese categories continue to set new monthly records.

Cheese stocks during December were more than a record 1.4 billion pounds, up two percent on the month and three percent on the year.

Other types of cheese also set another stocks record with a majority of inventories housed in the East North Central region which includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Butter inventories were down five percent from the previous month and 27 percent from last year at 199 million pounds.