Market News

Cash cheese tumbles

Cash cheese prices plunged on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Wednesday; barrels fell 15.25 cents and blocks dropped 12 cents. Class III futures fell accordingly with the February contract losing 71 cents, March fell 64 cents and April dropped 53 cents.  The March, April and May contracts all under $14.

Dairy Market News says with the holidays behind us, milk flow and cheese manufacturing has returned to more normal conditions. The big drop in the cheese market on Wednesday was not unexpected given the strong milk production and cheese production across the country.  Cheese inventories are building but are not seen as burdensome.  Cheese demand has remained strong.  The lower prices have sparked some export interest as U.S. prices come more into line with the global market.

 

In its 2015 Dairy Market Forecast: HighGround Dairy projects milk and dairy product prices will continue to decline in the first half of the year with Class III hitting around $12.40 by May but then rebounding quickly to back over $16 by October.

 

National Dairy Products Sales Report for the week ending January 10: cheddar blocks averaged $1.60 per pound down 1.4 cents from the previous week. Barrels were 3.5 cents lower at $1.53 per pound.  Butter averaged $1.56 down 6.1 cents, nonfat dry milk lost 8.4 cents to average $1.06 and dry whey decreased a half-cent to average 58.8 cents per pound.