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All that cream has to go somewhere

While cash cheese held steady, butter lost another 4 cents on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Monday. Butter is getting pressure from the fact a lot of cream is being offered, exceeding demand. Dairy Market News points out the only place to go with cream this time of year is the butter churn and butter makers aren’t interested in building inventories when prices are going down. They expect some significant price reductions on spot loads of cream over the holidays. Some plants in the Northeast have increased making unsalted butter for the export market. So far this year CWT has assisted in the sales of 72.4 million pounds of butter to the export market.

Milk production in New Zealand is running above year-ago levels, October production was up 4 percent from last October and seasonal production is up 6 percent so far. However, the New Zealand Ministry of Primary Industries is forecasting production to be even with last season, some areas of both islands are experiencing dry conditions which could come into play in the coming weeks but so far processing plants are running extra hours to handle the milk. Australian milk production is running about 1 percent ahead of last season, high feed prices are prompting some to limit supplemental feeding as pastures run-down.

Milk production is steady in Western Europe, a balance between higher production in Germany and lower production in the U.K., France and Ireland. The E.U. is feathering some PSA butter back into the market. Eastern Europe production is also steady although extremely cold temperatures are causing tom transportation problems.