Monday Midday Dairy Market Summary - Butter, Cheese and NDM Lower

OUTSIDE MARKETS SUMMARY:

CORN:	4 Lower
SOYBEANS:	5 Higher
SOYBEAN MEAL:	$0.10 Lower
LIVE CATTLE:	$0.225 Higher
DOW JONES:	546 Points Lower
NASDAQ:	17 Points Higher
CRUDE OIL:	$3.40 Higher

MIDDAY MARKET UPDATE:

The block cheese price decreased 0.5 cents to close at $1.7300 with 3 loads traded. The barrel cheese price was unchanged at $1.7200 with no loads traded. Dry Whey was unchanged at 84.25 cents with no loads traded. Class III futures are 20 cents lower to 14 cents higher. The butter price decreased by 4 cents, closing at $1.3000 with 7 loads traded. Grade A nonfat dry milk decreased 3.5 cents to close at $2.0600 with 2 loads traded. Class IV futures have not yet been traded today. Butter futures are 0.25 to 2.4 cents lower. Dry whey futures are still 0.5 cents higher on the November contract but have not traded over the last hour. Cheese futures are 0.9 cents higher to 1.7 cents lower. Nonfat dry milk futures are 0.5 to 2.15 cents lower.

Monday Morning Dairy Market Update - Cheese and Butter Stocks Lower This Month

OPENING CALLS:

Class III Milk Futures:	2 to 10 Higher
Class IV Milk Futures:	Mixed
Butter Futures:	1 to 2 Lower

OUTSIDE MARKET OPENING CALLS:

Corn Futures:	3 to 4 Lower
Soybean Futures:	15 to 17 Lower
Soybean Meal Futures:	$5.00 to $6.00 Lower
Wheat Futures:	1 to 2 Higher

MILK:

Class III futures are mixed on the overnight trade. To recap some of the information we received last week, milk production was lower month over month, but higher year over year. The Livestock Slaughter September report showed dairy cow slaughter up 7,600 head year over year. The Livestock, Dairy and Poultry Outlook report cut the milk output estimates for 2026 and 2027 from earlier expectations. Overall, expectations show higher prices expected, yet still big production estimates.

CHEESE:

Overnight trade for cheese has been quiet to start off the week. From the Cold Storage report last Friday, American cheese is 2% lower than last month's inventory and 2% lower than one year ago. Total natural cheese was down 1% from last month but up 2% year over year. Cheese blocks were the main story last week with a strong start to the week and some pull back toward the end of the week.

BUTTER:

Overnight trade is lower in the deferred months for butter futures. The Cold Storage report will be a difficult one to decipher in terms of its direct impact on the market. On one hand, the butter inventory is down 5% from last month and going into the holiday baking season on lower stocks is not ideal. However, it is difficult to get too excited given butter stocks are up 16% from a year ago.

Friday Closing Dairy Market Update - September Cold Storage Report Released

GENERAL OVERVIEW:

Natural cheese stocks and butter stocks were both down from last month's report, however still higher than September 2025. Grade A Nonfat Dry Milk falls the limit or near the futures daily limit after another tough day in the spot market.

MILK:

Class III Milk was mostly lower this afternoon with the December down 42 cents while the October fell 4 cents. The milk production report was mostly as expected this week with less milk produced from last month by quite a bit more milk produced when compared to last year. Class IV Milk did not trade today. For the week, Class III climbed 38 cents on the November contract peaked mid week with the highest levels traded since June. On the spot market, NFDM had 17 loads traded this week for a weekly average of $2.1550, which was down 5.55 cents from last week's average.

AVERAGE CLASS III PRICES:

3 Month:	$16.63
6 Month:	$16.74
9 Month:	$16.90
12 Month:	$17.09

CHEESE:

Cheddar blocks had 19 loads traded this week at an average price of $1.7385. That is 19.90 cents higher than last week's weekly average of $1.5395. Cheddar barrels climbed 8 cents this week with no loads traded for an average of $1.7040, up 19.45 cents from last week's average price. Dry Whey started the week off on Monday with an all-time high price traded of 89.5 cents but fell 5.25 cents to today's close of 84.25 cents. The current weekly average with 1 load traded this week, came in at 86.35 cents, down 1.95 cents from last week's average. The Cold Storage report showed the total natural cheese stocks in refrigerated warehouses fell 1 percent from last month but were 2% higher than September 2025. American cheese stocks were 792,213,000 pounds, down 2% from both last month and last year. Swiss was down 4% from last month at 22,868,000 pounds, yet up 8% year over year. Other natural cheeses totaled 613,475,000 pounds which was an increase of 8% year over year but close to last month's total.

BUTTER:

Butter had 30 loads traded this week with a decline of 4.5 cent from Monday. The current weekly average is $1.3490, which is 3.80 cents higher than last week's average price of $1.3110. On the Cold Storage Report today, butter stocks were 295,673,000, which was down 5% from one month ago yet 16% higher than September 2025. This does help explain some of the recent buying seen, but overall, the market is still sitting on a large volume of butter stocks.

OUTSIDE MARKETS SUMMARY:

December corn closed down 4.50 cents per bushel at $4.5600, November soybeans closed up 3.50 cents at $12.5650 and December soybean meal closed down $1.20 per ton at $346.10. December Chicago wheat closed up .25 cent at $6.2500.