Newsletter Articles
Class III continues sideways, butter curve flattens out
Friday’s session saw prices get off to a stronger start and, after the spot market closed unchanged with no activity, futures prices closed out the week on an uptick. July Class III hit and settled right at the $21.00 mark yet another new high. Early strength seemed to come as a result of price revisions from the USDA to the previous week’s cheese prices.
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Block and barrel cheese prices have been resilient
While the dairy complex was generally weaker Thursday, Class III futures consolidated amid lighter volume and finished modestly higher. While producer selling is light, commercial buy interest appears to be underpinning the market through the first half of 2012.
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Commentary: Why did I wait so long to be optimistic?
It’s been tough covering the news in this industry over the past two and a half years. Tough economic times have made it difficult on everyone.
But I was inspired this week when I read a commentary by Michael Marsh, CEO of Western United Dairymen, based in Modesto, Calif. Marsh said he was optimistic about the future for several reasons, including rising global demand for food, a possible end to the ethanol subsidy, and recent events in California, including Gov. Jerry Brown’s veto of card-check legislation that would have given unions more sway over farm workers.
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Poll: How is your corn crop doing?
- Great
- So-so
- Too wet
- Too dry
- Had to switch to an alternative crop
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More cheese in Chicago, but buyers welcome sellers
Class III finished on a weaker note yesterday on improved volume from Tuesday’s anemic session with over 1,280 contracts trading hands. While the day started off on a high note with prices rallying in pre-spot morning trade, the declining block and barrels prices in the spot session quickly sent futures into negative territory.
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Fresh news yesterday leans to market bearishness
Volume was so low yesterday that you would have thought it was still a holiday. There was plenty of data to digest throughout the day, it should have encouraged trading; maybe traders were waiting to see the dairy products report?
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UN calls for greener food production to feed world
World food production will have to increase by up to 100 percent by 2050 and focus on greener methods to sustain an expected 9 billion population, the U.N. said Tuesday in its annual survey of economic and social trends.
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Block price drops for first time in nearly a month
Friday was essentially a trading holiday as market participants were on vacation in mass. Volume Friday was lackluster from a complete trade perspective. But it does appear that for a second consecutive day, sell-side hedgers funneled, or at least tried to funnel, into the market place.
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Should you test heifers for Johne’s disease?
Does it make sense to test all of your heifers for Johne’s disease so that you can remove positive animals from your herd earlier? Researchers at the University of Idaho and Michigan State University conducted a case-control study to find out. The results were published in the June Journal of Dairy Science.
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Use care when regrouping dry cows
Canadian researchers recently took at look at the effect of regrouping during the dry period on feeding, social, rumination and lying behavior for cows that were moved to a new pen and cows that remained in their home pen but had new cows introduced.
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A more accurate methane measure
Researchers from the University of Briston and the Teagasc Animal and Grassland Research Centre in Ireland have found a link between methane production and levels of a compound called archaeol in the feces of several fore-gut fermenting animals, including cows, sheep and deer.
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