Market News

Dairy markets mixed on Wednesday

Cash cheese barrels increased three-quarter-cent on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Wednesday while blocks decreased a half-cent. Butter increased 4.25 cents on one unfilled bid and nonfat dry milk slipped a half-cent. Class III futures for 2015 increased and 2016 contracts were mixed.

National Dairy Products Sales Report for the week ending July 18^th; cheddar cheese blocks averaged $1.68 per pound down 2.2 cents from the previous week. Barrels decreased 1.6 cents to average $1.66, butter was 0.6 cents lower at $1.93, nonfat dry milk slipped 1.5 cents to 84.7 cents per pound and dry whey averaged 38.9 cents per pound down 1.6 cents from the previous week.

Base Class I Price for August is $16.28 per hundredweight down 25 cents from the previous month. The Base Skim Milk Price for Class I for August is $9.13 down 34 cents from the previous month.

Monthly Cold Storage Report from the National Ag Statistics Service has 1.14 billion pounds of cheese in the nation’s warehouses as of June 30^th. That is up 3 percent from the end of May and 8 percent above June of last year. American cheese stocks totaled nearly 685 million pounds up 2 percent for the month and 5 percent for the year. Swiss cheese stocks slipped 3 percent for the month and 25 percent for the year. Butter in cold storage totaled 254.6 million pounds at the end of June down 4 percent from the end of May but 28 percent above June of 2014.