In Class III trade at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, milk futures were higher, bouncing back to start out the new month. Contracts lost a significant amount of ground in mid-to-late August on a technical reversal. September was up $.31 at $16.77, October was $.26 higher at $16.84, November was up $.25 at $16.56, and December was $.15 higher at $16.15.
In the spot market, cash cheese blocks were unchanged at $1.68. Barrels were $.005 higher at $1.63. There were a total of six trades, including two at the closing price. The last uncovered offer was for one load at $1.64.
Butter was $.015 lower at $2.065. The last unfilled bid was on one load at $2.06. The last offer uncovered was for one load at $2.065.
Nonfat dry milk was up $.005 at $.86. The last unfilled bid was on one load at that price.
The USDA reports that for the week ending August 27th, butter averaged $2.22 per pound, down 2.3 cents on the week. 40 pound blocks of cheddar were pegged at $1.81, up 3.3, and 500 pound barrels averaged $1.91, 2.5 higher. Dry whey was pegged at $.293, an increase of 1.1 cents. Nonfat dry milk averaged $.866, a tenth of a cent lower.
The USDA announced the Class II price for August was $15.21 per hundredweight, up $.05 from July, the Class III price, at $16.91, was $1.67 higher, and the Class IV price, at $14.65, was down $.19.
For July, the USDA says the dairy prices received index was 80.1, up 6.5 from June, but down 3.0 from July 2016. The livestock production and food commodity indices were down on both the week and the year. The milk received index was $16.10 per hundredweight, $1.30 higher than a month ago, but $.60 lower than a year ago. Seasonally adjusted, the July price for milk was $16.60 per hundredweight. The state with the highest milk price was Florida at $19.00 per hundredweight and the lowest was California at $14.94. The fat test, at 3.65% was down fractionally from last month, but up fractionally from last year. The highest fat test was in South Dakota at 3.91% and the lowest was New Mexico at 3.43%. Producers received $1,730 per head for milk cows and while a month to month comparison was not available, the year to year decline was $300. Colorado had the highest price for milk cows at $1,900 per head and the lowest was in Pennsylvania at $1,550. The milk-feed ratio is 2.14 pounds of 16% mixed dairy feed to one pound of whole milk, a month to month and year to year improvement.
Source: Brownfield Ag News
