MILK:
Class III futures closed mixed for the week with some contracts lower than last Friday and others slightly higher. All in all, it was somewhat of an uneventful week. The divergence of cheese prices was the underlying reason for limited movement of futures. The same could not be said for Class IV futures as contracts closed significantly lower for the week due to declining butter and nonfat dry milk prices. Hot weather has reached many areas of the country and will remain for about a week. This will affect milk production, but it may not have a lasting impact on overall milk production. Later hot weather events will have an impact if the hot weather remains for a longer duration. Some processing facilities are welcoming the hotter weather in order to reduce milk receipts at the plant for a period of time, possibly allowing them a little breathing room after running at, or near, full capacity for quite some time.
AVERAGE CLASS III PRICES:
| 3 Month: | $17.87 |
| 6 Month: | $18.37 |
| 9 Month: | $18.28 |
| 12 Month: | $18.17 |
CHEESE:
The April Dairy Products report showed American cheese production at 473 million pounds, an increase of 6% over April 2020. That stands to reason as many plants still processed cheese, but reduced production or dumped milk due to the fact they could not handle it or demand for the finished product was not there. Buyers of any extra available milk were not willing to purchase and much of what was made moved into storage. Most of the milk that was dumped was milk that was destined for bottling as school and restaurant accounts were immediately shut down. Italian type cheese production totaled 481 million pounds in April and was 7.4% above a year earlier. Total cheese output reached 1.14 billion pounds, up 8.0% from April 2020. Dry whey production totaled 74.4 million pounds and was down 1.8% below a year. Accurate comparisons to last year cannot be made for production. For the week, blocks declined 3 cents with 33 loads traded. Barrels increased 4.50 cents with 20 loads traded. Dry whey declined 2 cents with 2 loads traded.
BUTTER:
Butter output in April totaled 185 million pounds and was surprisingly 18.5% lower than April 2020. Nonfat dry milk output totaled 195 million pounds, down 4%. Skim milk production totaled 41.6 million pounds, down 19.4% from a year ago. For the week, butter declined 3.50 cents with 17 loads traded. Grade A nonfat dry milk declined 3.25 cents with 10 loads traded.
OUTSIDE MARKETS SUMMARY:
July corn jumped 20.75 cents, closing at $6.8275. July soybeans jumped 34.50 cents, closing at $15.8375 with July soybean meal up $4.60 per ton, closing at $396.20. July wheat gained 11.50 cents, ending at $6.87745. June live cattle closed $0.05 higher at $116.82. July crude oil gained $0.81, closing at $69.62 per barrel. The DOW gained 179 points, ending at 34,756 while the NASDAQ gained 200 points, closing at 13,814.
