Gains during the past two weeks in the spot market for dairy commodities at the CME Group (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) raised the price for Cheddar block cheese to its highest level during 2016.
That price stood at $1.9425 per pound on Wednesday of this week after a 1 cent gain on a market day with one carload sale, an uncovered offer to sell one carload, and an unfilled bid to buy one carload.
The Cheddar barrel cheese price, which had risen to $1.86 per pound on Friday, Nov. 4, lost 3 cents during Wednesday’s session. The price drop came as a result of an uncovered offer to sell two carloads.
Busy butter market
After 10 carload sales of AA butter on Wednesday, the week’s total rose to 15 sales. The price ticked up to 1 cent to close at $1.91 per pound.
For Grade A non-fat dry milk, the 11 carload sales on Wednesday raised the week’s total to 14 spot market sales. The price slipped by .50 cent to 87.25 cents per pound on a market day which included an unfilled bid to buy one carload.
Steady futures prices
With offsetting spot market prices for dairy commodities, the Class III milk futures had only minor changes in the per hundred prices in trading on Wednesday afternoon. The November 2016 price of $16.81 per hundred was the highest on the trading board.
Except for the $15.78 to $15.95 range in the Class III futures for January through May of 2017, all of the prices for other months through October of 2018 were in the $16s per hundred. Except for December of 2016, trading in the Class III futures was relatively light on Wednesday.
Contrary to the Class III milk futures, the November 2016 price of 35 cents per pound for dry whey futures was the lowest on the trading board on Wednesday. For all months of 2017, the prices stood between 35.75 and 38.65 cents per pound.
October class prices
For milk shipped in October, the national Class III milk base price was $14.82 per hundred. This was a decrease of $1.57 from September and of 64 cents from October of 2015.
In Class II (soft dairy products), the October price was $14.09 per hundred. This was a decrease of 57 cents from September and of $2.35 from October of 2015.
The October Class IV (butter and milk powders) price was $13.66 per hundred. That was a decrease of 59 cents from September and of $2.77 per hundred from October of 2015.
By: Ray Mueller
Source: Wisfarmer.com