Market News

Milk futures, cash dairy mixed

Milk futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange continued to trade mixed Thursday as did cash markets ahead of the USDA’s milk production and slaughter reports.

May Class III milk up five cents at $18.98. June up four cents at $18.34. July down four cents at $19.06. August up four cents at $19.29. September through November contracts three to nine cents higher.

Dry whey up $0.0050 at $0.6450.

Blocks down $0.0225 at $1.58. Nine trades were made from $1.58 to $1.5950.

Barrels up $0.0125 at $1.8675. One sale was made at that price.

Butter up $0.0025 at $1.8550. One sale was made at that price.

Nonfat dry milk unchanged $1.3025. One sale was made at $1.30.

The USDA says April’s dairy cow slaughter was just under 260,000 head, a decrease of nearly 45,000 from March and about 22,000 from April 2020.

The year-to-date dairy cow slaughter is 1.1 million head, a little bit slower than the 2020 pace.