October 4, 2023: Dairy Week in Review

Butter prices on the CME have been steadily increasing, on the heels of last week’s Cold Storage report that showed butter inventories down 40.3 million pounds from July to August. Since the end of July, the spot butter price on the CME is up 66 cents to an all-time high of $3.34 per pound on…

September 27, 2023: Dairy Week in Review

According to the latest USDA Cold Storage report, butter inventories are down 40.3 million pounds form July to August, or 12 percent, to 289.1 million pounds at the end of August. This is the largest August decline in inventories since 2015. Butter stocks were still up 4 percent from a year ago. Total cheese inventories…

September 20, 2023: Dairy Week in Review

USDA announced the October Class I base price at $19.47 per hundredweight, up 57 cents from September but down $3.24 from a year ago. Total milk production in the US is down for the second month in a row, with August production levels slipping 0.2 percent from a year ago to 18.975 billion pounds nationwide….

September 13, 2023: Dairy Week in Review

USDA reported its June fluid milk product sales a couple of weeks ago, with total milk sales falling almost 300 million pounds, or 8.5 percent, from May to about 3.064 billion pounds, or about 356.2 gallons, in June. When fluid milk sales drop during the summer months, some of that milk is often diverted into…

September 6, 2023: Dairy Week in Review

The August Class III milk price was announced at $17.19 per cwt., up $3.42 from July’s low but down $5.33 from year-ago levels. Class III futures prices on the CME continue their rebound in September and average $18.69 per cwt for the reminder of the year. USDA announced the August Class IV price at $18.91…

August 30, 2023: Dairy Week in Review

Higher cull values coupled with tighter dairy margins are continue to drive dairy cow slaughter levels. Dairy cow slaughter was up 6.1 percent, or about 14,000 head, from a year ago to 244,200 head culled in July. Dairy cows culled in July did fall from June, though, according to the latest USDA Livestock Slaughter report,…

August 23, 2023: Dairy Week in Review

For the first time since May 2022, US total milk production is down, falling 0.5 percent in July to 19.075 billion pounds, with 13,000 head fewer cows in the nation’s dairy herd, now at 9.4 million head. Milk per cow nationally also fell, dropping 0.5 percent from a year ago to 2,029 pounds per cow….

August 16, 2023: Dairy Week in Review

The dairy price index on the latest Global Dairy Trade session fell 7.4 percent from the previous session to its lowest level since April 2020. The price fell to $2,875 per metric ton, marking the seventh consecutive session-to-session drop in the price. Whole milk powder prices fell 10.9 percent to a seven-year low, while skim…

August 9, 2023: Dairy Week In Review

The latest USDA Dairy Products report shows total cheese production up 0.4 percent from a year  ago to 1.17 billion pounds, but down 2.8 percent from May 2023. Hard cheeses saw the greatest  increases in production, with Parmesan output up 9.4 percent. Soft cheese production was down, with ricotta falling 9.5 percent from a year…

August 2, 2023: Dairy Week In Review

The June Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) margin was announced as $3.65 per hundredweight (cwt) (Table 1) and hit a record low for the second consecutive month. Indemnities were triggered at  all margin coverages ($4.00 up to $9.50 per cwt) for the first time in program history. The June Margin is $1.40 per cwt less than…