Dairy markets continue to nudge higher with a little help from increasing feed prices and increasing temperatures. Cash cheese barrels gained 1.5 cents on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Tuesday while blocks gained 1.25 cents. Both increases were on unfilled bids. There is $1.40 difference between the June and July Class III futures right now, in fact Class III contracts from July through December are all over the $17.00 mark.
Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) has accepted 4 requests for export assistance from DFA and Darigold to sell a total of 2.646 million pounds of Cheddar cheese and 220,462 pounds of butter to customers in Asia and the Middle East. The product will be delivered July through December 2012.
In 2012, CWT has assisted member cooperatives in making export sales of Cheddar, Monterey Jack and Gouda cheese totaling 64.1 million pounds and butter and AMF totaling 45.2 million pounds to 32 countries on four continents.
On a legislative note, the farm bill passed by the Senate last week not only contains the Dairy Security Act but there are a couple of other amendments affecting dairy as well. The International Dairy Foods Association says one amendment directs USDA to study the elimination of end-product price formulas for Class III milk in federal orders. The other amendment gives the secretary of agriculture the authority to request more frequent price reporting and to move to a two-class federal order system.
The focus now is on the House to come up with their version of the farm bill, most expect the Dairy Security Act as introduced by Congressman Collin Peterson to be included in the House measure.
Latest: 
