Opening Calls:
| Class III Milk Futures: | Mixed |
| Class IV Milk Futures: | 5 to 10 Higher |
| Butter Futures: | 1 to 2 Higher |
Outside Market Opening Calls:
| Corn Futures: | Steady to 2 higher |
| Soybean Futures: | 5 to 8 Higher |
| Soybean Meal Futures: | Steady to $2 Higher |
| Wheat Futures: | 1 to 3 Higher |
Milk:
Traders remained shy overnight not wanting to commit themselves to a market direction. Support remains strong under the market, but whether it will be strong enough to push Class III futures back to the highs remains to be seen. With milk production increasing steadily moving into spring flush, there are no concern over supply. The concern will be how to process all of the milk and how to move product without building substantial inventory. There is plenty of fresh cheese available to the market, but orders need to be filled and sometimes buyers need to come to the spot market to get it due to the inability to get it from regular suppliers. USDA will release the Prospective Plantings report Wednesday with the average trade guess of 93.1 million acres (ma) of corn, 90.0 ma of soybeans and 45.2 ma of wheat. Quarterly stocks for corn is estimated at 7.778 billion bushels (bb), soybeans at 1.561 bb and wheat at 1.272 bb. USDA will also release the February Agricultural Prices report providing an income over feed price for the month.
Cheese:
Prices could go either way Wednesday. The bias is to the upside, but with increasing cheese production and a slight slowing of curd demand, sellers may want to move product at these prices. Restaurant demand has been steadily increasing, but the pipeline may be filled for the time being with maintenance orders being placed. This may move prices into a sideways range. Buyers and sellers may find a level at which they will be comfortable doing business.
Butter:
Spot butter moved to the highest level since June 22, 2020. Price seems to be gaining momentum climbing for six consecutive days gaining 15.75 cents. Demand from the food service industry is improving more rapidly than earlier anticipated. Exports have also been very strong the past few months as U.S. price competitive to World price. Price may be near a level where it may consolidate for a period of time.
