Market News

Dairy down for the week

Cash cheese barrels slipped a penny on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Friday. Blocks, butter and nonfat dry milk were unchanged.  Class III futures through March were a few cents lower, April through July contracts increased a little and the rest of 2015 was mixed.

For the week: cash cheese barrels lost 9.5 cents, blocks fell 12 cents, butter gained a penny and nonfat dry milk slipped 3.75 cents. Class III futures for January are up 4 cents, February lost 41 cents, March dropped 64 cents and the July contract lost 25 cents from a week ago.

USDA says the average all-milk price in 2014 was a record-high $23.97 per hundredweight, nearly 20 percent above the average $20.05 of 2013. Besides record high prices for dairy products, commercial exports in 2014 took an estimated 6 percent of total U.S. milk production on a milk-fat basis and 19 percent on a skim-solids basis.

All indications are things will be quite different this year, the latest Livestock, Dairy and Poultry Outlook projects the 2015 all milk price will average between $17.75 and $18.55.