Milk Prices and Temperatures Continue to Fall
The Arctic blast across most of the U.S. put some chill in the cheese trade. The CME spot trade had cheddar barrels hold unchanged at $1.50 per lb. but Blocks fell 3 ¾ cents to $1.62 ¾. There was nice volume, however, as 4 loads of blocks traded and 9 loads of barrels.
Butter failed to trade a load, but gained ¾ of a cent to $1.28 ¾. Grade A non Fat Dry Milk gained half a penny to 1.13/lb and Dry whey gained half a penny to $0.54/lb.
Class III milk struggled to move higher. February fell 13 cents to $15.48, March fell 23 cents to $16.31, and April fell 36 cents to 1$6.76 per cwt.
Class IV moved higher – February was up 7 cents to $13.34, March gained 10 cents to $13.97, and April gained 16 cents to $14.72 per cwt. The balance of 2021 was up 8-25 cents.
The USDA released the February World Ag Supply and Demand report on Tuesday morning. Overall very little was adjusted from January and after strength early, we ended mixed. Corn fell 7 ¼ cents to $5.56 ¼, Soybeans gained 14 cents to $14.01 ¾, and Soybean meal gained $2.10 to $438.7 per ton
