Turnaround Wednesday this week. The dairy markets had a nice bounce back after a lackluster start to the week. The USDA released the March Dairy Products report. Total cheese production came in at 1.196 billion lbs, up 13.2 million lb from a year ago and an 8.3% increase over February 2022 produciton.
Butter production came in at 202.6 million lbs, up 3 million from this time in 2021, and up 19.1 million from February’s output. The 5 year average growth from Feb – March is 11 million lbs.
Nonfat Dry Milk and Skim Milk powder combined for 223.5 million lbs and Dry whey at 80.2 million lbs.
The CME spot trade was littered with green. Cheddar barrels gained 3 cents to $2.33/lb, Blocks unchanged at $2.34/lb. Butter gained back 3 cents to $2.65/lb. Grade A Non Fat Dry milk gained 2 ½ cents to $1.73 ½ with Dry whey falling ¾ of a cent to $0.58 3/4/lb.
Class III Milk saw May gain 51 cents to $24.72, June gained 37 to $24.30 and July gained 39 to $24.12/cwt.
Class IV milk was unchanged in May to $24.45, June gained 10 to $23.70, and July gained 17 to $23.92/cwt.
