A mixed day in the cash cheese market on Friday, barrels declined 1.25 cents to close at $2.2625 while blocks increased 1.25 cents to $2.3625 on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.That puts the barrel-to-block spread back at a dime. Class III futures continue to surge with the April contract going over $22 and June and July both passing the $20 mark.
For the week, cash cheese barrels gained 1.25 cents, blocks increased 7 cents, cash butter and nonfat dry milk unchanged. Class III futures March up 56 cents, April increased $1.16, May up 53 cents and September added a dime.
The monthly Livestock, Dairy and Poultry Outlook from USDA notes that the nation’s dairy herd held steady at 9.3 million head from January to February. The strong prices for replacement heifers and dairy calves indicate we should be adding cows but the high beef prices are prompting high cull rates. Milk per cow is increasing but in January it was below the five-year average suggesting the bitter cold weather and variable forage quality are factors.
A few months ago predictions were that we would see milk prices increase for the first quarter of this year, level-off in the second quarter and then decline a bit in the second half of the year. Given the strong global demand picture, that forecast has now changed to “record and near-record prices for the remainder of 2014.”
provided by Brownfield AgNews