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Dairy stocks remain higher

There are a lot of dairy products in cold storage, and an economist says the last USDA report had a few surprises.

Mark Stephenson with the University of Wisconsin tells Brownfield cheese supplies were up but, “They are the highest we’ve seen in the last several years but not by much. I mean, they’re up only a little bit, and the drawdown from May to June was much larger than is typical for us.”

Stephenson says cheese is not in a bad place, but there’s also not a big rush to secure fall and winter dairy needs.  Butter is different, as Stephenson says stocks are much higher now. “People aren’t buying butter like they did for a period of time. Those sales have actually been decent, but they aren’t early buying for the holiday season and I think it’s because they know that there’s going to be ample supplies.”

Stephenson says the butter prices have still ticked upward, helping boost some milk checks for farmers.