This afternoon USDA announced the Class III price for May milk was $18.55/cwt., up $3.05 from April. The Class IV price was $20.50, a $0.39 increase over April, and the Class II price was $21.50, a $0.27 gain from April.
The butterfat price picked up 13 cents at $3.4636 per pound, protein gained 90 cents at $1.7349, and other solids lost nearly 2 cents at $0.2181.
The Dairy Products report for April showed butter production totaled 208 million pounds, 5.3% above April 2023 but 1.3% below March 2024.
Total cheese production reached 1.19 billion pounds, 1.8% above April 2023 but 3% below March 2024.
Nonfat dry milk production declined 12.7% to 173 million pounds and skim milk powder fell 20.8% to 36.3 million pounds.