The cold storage report was released Tuesday afternoon, giving us a picture of January’s stocks. Cheese stocks gained just 2 million lbs. from December to January. Much below the average of 16 million. Even with this small gain, Cheese stocks are 3% more than the January 2020 levels at 1.396 billion lbs.
Butter inventories came in at 328 million lbs. in January, up 55. million from December. The five year average gain in that time frame is 48 million lbs. January inventories are 33% higher than they were the year prior.
Milk production showed a smaller than expected gain in Milk output in January. Gained 1.6% over January 2020 levels to 19.170 billion lbs. of milk. The cow herd increased by 8,000 cows to being the national herd size to 9.45 million head.
The CME spot trade had butter down 2 ¼ cents to $1.48 ¾, Cheddar blocks unchanged at $1.57, barrels were down 3 cents to $1.38 ¾. Grade a Nonfat Dry milk fell ¾ of a cent to $1.09 per lb. and Dry whey was unchanged at $0.54 3/4 per lb.
Class III slid lower. February was up 3 cents to $15.64, March fell 50 cents to $15.86. Class IV milk was unchanged in February at $13.28 and fell 15 cents in March to $13.92 per cwt.
