Opening Calls:
| Class III Milk Futures: | Steady to 10 Higher |
| Class IV Milk Futures: | 5 to 10 Higher |
| Butter Futures: | 1 to 2 Higher |
Outside Market Opening Calls:
| Corn Futures: | 1 to 3 Lower |
| Soybean Futures: | Steady to 3 Higher |
| Soybean Meal Futures: | $1 to $2 Higher |
| Wheat Futures: | 5 to 9 Lower |
Milk:
The minor rebound of milk futures Tuesday keeps the short-term uptrend intact. News of the weather that has affected a large area of the country continues to dominate the airwaves. Tuesday, there was a report of a small farm in Texas that had to dump milk due to the inability to get the milk picked up. That is the only report so far that has surfaced, but there might be more farms that might have to dump some milk until the truck can get through. This is not expected to cause any significant impact on the market as the supply/demand balance is not tight. Nevertheless, it is always an emotional time when one has to watch milk flow down the drain. Spot milk continues to be readily available in many places at attractive prices. This is keeping plants running at or near capacity in most cases. Milk futures should show strength prior to spot trading.
Cheese:
Prices keep bumping around at the bottom of the range of the past week. There is little indication of where prices could go. Buyers have not been aggressive and are not bidding up for cheese even when little is being offered. Inventory is slowly increasing as aging programs are being rebuilt and extra product needs to go somewhere.
Butter:
Price moved to the highest level it has been since Jan. 20. It has been an exceptional increase over the past week and one that may run out of steam soon. Fundamentally, the market may not be able to hold this gain as sellers may step back into the market in order to move product at the higher price. As with cheese, butter inventory continues to increase.
