MILK
Milk production has not yet reached a bottom. Some areas have stabilized while others continue to see slight declines as hot weather persists. Increased demand for school accounts has tightened spot milk availability. Spot milk is generally available from $1.00 below class to class. If demand for certain dairy products increases during the Fall with more milk moving to schools, the market could tighten further. This could keep Class III price above $20.00 and Class IV higher than that. Although those prices would not be great under the current market situation, they would be better than what has been historical. It will be difficult for many farms to be profitable through the end of the year. The average soybean meal price for July reached $467.87 per ton. This was $21.94 per ton higher than June and $102.64 per ton higher than a year ago. The income over feed price for July was $9.92 and the lowest it has been year-to-date and the lowest since December 2021. USDA will release the July Dairy Products report tomorrow showing the level of production for cheese, butter, and other dairy production in comparison to a year earlier.
AVERAGE CLASS III PRICES
| 3 Month: | $19.78 |
| 6 Month: | $20.12 |
| 9 Month: | $20.16 |
| 12 Month: | $20.19 |
CHEESE
Some plants in the Midwest indicate a slight increase in cheese demand. Some of this may be attributed to increased pizza demand as schools are in session and football season is here. Some suppliers indicated they have had to limit customer orders in order to ensure all regular orders are being met. This is not expected to suddenly tighten supply but may limit inventory from building.
BUTTER
Price is holding well with buyers remaining interested even at current levels. Sellers want to continue to move product at attractive prices. Manufacturing inventories are tight in some cases as buyers are looking ahead to purchase supply for the upcoming holidays. Plants are having ongoing difficulties in keeping plants running at capacity due to the lack of workers.
OUTSIDE MARKETS SUMMARY
September corn fell 15.50 cents closing at $6.5825. September soybeans fell 34.75 cents closing at $14.7275 with September soybean meal down $6.90 per ton closing at $452.00. September wheat fell 33.50 cents ending at $775.50. October live cattle gained $0.22 closing at $142.80. October curd oil declined $2.94 ending at $86.61 per barrel. The DOW gained 146 points closing at 31,656 while the NASDAQ declined 31 points closing at 11,785.
