News

Dairy markets better than a year ago

Cash cheese barrels declined again on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Tuesday, in the last two sessions of the year, barrels lost 12 cents to $1.85. Blocks held steady at $2.00. Butter increased a penny to $1.5325. Class III futures for January end the year at $19.34, February at $18.67 and March at $18.35.

A year ago, cash cheese barrels were 14 cents lower, blocks were 24 cents lower, cash butter was 3.5 cents lower, Grade A nonfat dry milk was 50.75 cents lower, Extra Grade was 53 cents lower. Class III futures for January were $17.91, February $18.32 and March $18.19. Probably of more significance is the price of feed, a year ago March corn was $6.9825, January soybeans $14.1875 and all-hay was $192 per ton. That put the milk-to-feed ratio at 1.65 compared to 2.3 now.