Market News

Milk futures lower, cash cheese steady

In Class III trade at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, milk futures were lower on profit taking. July was down $.01 at $15.33, August was $.08 lower at $16.50, September was down $.12 at $16.48, and October was $.15 lower at $16.55.

Over in the spot market, cash cheese was unchanged. Blocks held at $1.68 and barrels were steady at $1.755.

Butter was up $.0025 at $2.2975. The last unfilled bid was on one load at that price.

Nonfat dry milk was unchanged at $.8625. The last uncovered offer was for one load at $.87.

Wednesday, the USDA reported the Base Class I milk price for August will be $15.07 per hundredweight, up $1.37 from July, and the Base Skim price will be $6.16, $.59 higher. The Class II skim price is pegged at $6.71 and the Class II Nonfat Solids price is $.7456 per pound.

For the week ending July 16th, butter averaged $2.31 per pound, down 3.4 cents on the week, with sales of nearly 3 million pounds. 40 pound blocks of cheddar came out at $1.59, up 3 cents, with sales of more than 14 million pounds, and 500 pound barrels averaged $1.69, 5.7 higher, with sales of 10 million pounds. Dry whey was pegged at $.273, down 0.3, with sales of 7 million pounds. Nonfat dry milk averaged $.836, a decrease of 1.6, with sales of 14.6 million pounds.

California’s Department of Agriculture says the state’s nonfat dry milk price for the week ending July 15th was just over $.81 per pound, down $.05 on the week. Sales topped 10.5 million pounds, a week to week increase of more than 4 million.