Dairy markets continued their descent on Monday following another day of weak cheese performance on the CME spot dairy auction. Block cheese declined 6.75 cents/lb as six loads were exchanged amongst sellers and buyers. Barrel cheese suffered a 4.5 cent drop as 13 loads were traded. Blocks ended at $1.4525/lb while barrels settled at $1.4050/lb, respectively. Butter added 5.75 cents with its close at $2.5475/lb. Whey closed unchanged and nonfat dry milk was up a penny.
Class III milk saw roughly 30 cents fall out of the Q1 2024 on Monday following the cheese trade. Q1 is now averaging $15.96/cwt. Q2 2024 was slightly softer but still holds significant premium to Q1 at a $17.78/cwt average. 2nd half 2024 did gain around a nickel to a dime. Class IV markets were mainly higher as settlements came in 5-10 higher.
USDA released their November 2023 Milk Production report on Monday. In total, 18.1 billion pounds were produced for November. Year over year, output was down 0.6% while October was revised lower. The milking herd was down 10,000 head in November.
