A mixed day in the dairy markets on Tuesday. A very busy day in the cash cheese market with 22 loads of blocks sold and the price ending up 2 cents lower on 5 uncovered offers. Barrels slipped a half-cent on one uncovered offer.
The market reacting to the March milk production numbers released after the close on Monday. While total U.S. milk production for the month was a little above year-ago levels traders did take note that production was down in nine of the 23 major dairy states including a 0.7 percent decline in California. Another interesting point, for the second month in a row, cow numbers declined in the West, Southwest and Southeast while the Great Lakes and Pacific Northwest states added to their herds.
Some interesting numbers from Wisconsin, production per cow jumped 100 pounds compared to a year ago so the 6.3 percent increase in production was accomplished with just 4,000 more cows in the Badger State dairy herd. Daily Dairy Report notes milk production in America’s Dairyland has increased almost every month for the last six years. In February of 2004, Wisconsin produced 1.89 billion pounds of milk from 1.24 million cows averaging 1,520 pounds per cow. This March the Badger State had 2.23 billion pounds of milk from 1.26 million cows averaging 1,775 per cow
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