Butter climbed 5.5 cents to $1.56 on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Wednesday, that is the highest since November of 2008, Dairy Market News says firm cream prices and tighter supplies have slowed churning, some butter makers are backing off with the higher prices while others fear cream supplies will be even tighter the second half of the year so they better make all the butter they can now. Here again, a difference of opinion, some think more cream will be available shortly with the annual spring flush in milk production while others say the early spring weather means we are already in the flush outside the upper Midwest.
Butter inventories are below year-ago levels meanwhile the Foreign Ag Service reports butter exports in January and February totaled 11.9 million pounds, a 36 percent increase over last year. More than 55 percent of the butter went to three countries: Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Russia.
Cheese exports for the two months totaled 42.8 million pounds up 16 percent from last year. Four countries took more than 56 percent of that cheese, Mexico, Japan, South Korea and Canada.
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