Market News

A mixed day in the dairy markets

Cheddar blocks and nonfat dry milk were lower, butter was higher on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Thursday. The October Class III contract gained three cents, all others were a little lower.

National Dairy Products Sales Report for the week ending October 10^th; cheddar cheese blocks averaged $1.68 per pound down 1.6 cents from the previous week. Barrels were 0.3 cents higher at $1.60, butter dropped 20.1 cents to $2.66, nonfat dry milk increased 1.6 cents to 89.2 cents per pound and dry whey lost 1.9 cents to average 22.4 cents per pound.

Milk intakes are mixed in the Central region, lower in the Northeast and marginally higher in the West. Dairy Market News reports good demand for Class I and II utilization with loads stair-stepping toward the Southeast. Florida imported another 230 loads this week. Spot loads of milk are scarce and running as much as $2 over class.

 

While Chinese purchases of Australian dairy farms has been in the news this week, a new report says Americans have been the “big buyers” of farmland in New Zealand.  In 2013 and 2014, the New Zealand Overseas Investment Office approved sales totaling 28,000 hectares (69,000 acres) of farmland to foreign buyers. More than half of the sales, 15,400 hectares (38,000 acres) were to U.S. buyers. The Chinese purchased 3,300 hectares (8,000 acres) during that period. Other buyers were from Sweden, the United Kingdom, Canada, Switzerland and Italy.