News

Milk prices close-out 2013 at a yearly high

The base milk prices for December announced on Thursday, all three at highs for the year. Class II base is $21.66, up 90 cents from November and $3.36 above December of last year. The Class III base is $18.95 up 12 cents for the month and $1.51 above a year ago. Class IV base for December milk is $21.54 up $1.02 from November and $5.53 above December of 2012. Component prices per pound: butterfat $1.7672; protein $3.539; nonfat solids $1.768; other solids $0.3826.

For 2013, the average Class II price was $19.42, average Class III $17.99, Class IV $19.05. The low price of the year for Class II was $18.19 last January, Class III bottomed-out at $16.93 in March while the low for Class IV was $12.06 in March. Compared to 2012, Class II averaged $2.78 higher, Class III was 55 cents higher and Class IV was $3.04 over 2012.

A little rebound to start the new year in the dairy markets on Thursday: after sliding 12 cents the last two days of 2012, cash cheese barrels held steady on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange while blocks increased 1.5 cents. Butter also added three-quarter cent. All of the movement was from unfilled bids. Class III futures responded in a positive manner with January up 22 cents to $19.66, February jumped 45 cents to $19.12 and March added 19 cents to $18.54 per hundredweight.

National Dairy Products Sales Report for the week ending December 28th; cheddar cheese blocks averaged $1.91 per pounds up 2.4 cents from the previous week. Barrels were up 6.3 cents to $1.90, butter decreased 6.5 cents to $1.58, nonfat dry milk up 1.6 cents to average $1.98 per pound and dry whey decreased 0.4 cents to 57.2 cents per pound.