Market News

A quiet day in the dairy markets

Cash cheese blocks slipped 1.75 cents and butter was a penny lower on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Tuesday.  Class III futures for 2015 gained a little while 2016 contracts lost a little.  The March and April 2016 contracts slipped below $16.

Australia’s milk production year ended June 30^th with output 2 to 3 percent above the previous year.  The recently announced opening pay price for the new season is around 5.60 (Aus.) per kilogram of milk solids.  The forecast is the price will reach 6.05 by the end of the season.  Australia is making significant investments into expanding dairy operations and growing processing capacity in anticipation of growing demand from Asia.

Dairy Australia reports dairy product exports for the last year were running 2.4 percent above the previous year.

New Zealand’s production year runs through July, milk production in May was 10.7 percent above a year ago.

Western European milk production has declined slightly from seasonal peaks.  Dairy prices are expected to decline shortly with little recovery in the near term.  USDA Dairy Market News says reliminary reports from Eurostat shows milk production in the EU28 for January through May was unchanged from a year ago.  Production was lower in Germany, France, Belgium and Italy but higher in the U.K. and Iceland.  Eastern European production is declining slightly but Poland’s January through May output was up 1.8 percent.