MILK
There were no expectations for any significant price movements today. The changes in underlying cash were not enough to trigger any aggressive buying or selling. Any sustained trend will be slow to develop as traders will need to see evidence of a sustained price move before turning to follow the trend. With milk production slowly increasing providing sufficient milk for bottling and manufacturing, there is little concern over a lack of supply both now and in the foreseeable future. For the time being, this may keep milk prices rangebound or under pressure. Weather for the most part has been good for milk production in much of the country. There have been some issues in California but mostly confined to delays and not a loss of milk. There will be some impact, but maybe not as much as had been feared. Class III futures closed the day mixed showing limited response to the gains in cheese prices. Class IV futures were steady to lower in response to weakness of butter and nonfat dry milk. Greater losses in futures were seen for the second half of the year.
AVERAGE CLASS III PRICES
| 3 Month: | $18.73 |
| 6 Month: | $18.84 |
| 9 Month: | $19.14 |
| 12 Month: | $19.31 |
CHEESE
There was some interest in buying cheese today to take advantage of the lower prices. However, the buying interest was minimal with limited loads of cheese purchased. The market continues to move up and down as buyers want to purchase at lower prices while sellers want to sell at higher prices. This leaves the market range bound and keeps traders less interested in reacting quickly to underlying price movement.
BUTTER
Price is not expected to change much in the near term. Exports are holding well and above a year ago while domestic demand has slowed. Heavier cream supply has increased churning making more supply available to the market. There has been no discussion over a butter shortage as there had been in September and October as current inventory is sufficient for demand. There have been some reports that there has been some building of inventory which may bring December inventory nearly to the same level as it was at the close of 2021.
Outside Markets Summary
March corn jumped 10.25 cents closing at $6.8525. March soybeans gained 12 cents closing at $15.3975 with March soybean meal gaining $4.90 per ton closing at $481.20. March wheat gained 8 cents closing at $7.5175. February live cattle declined $0.75 ending at $157.00. February crude oil closed $0.32 higher at $80.18 per barrel. The Dow fell 392 points closing at 33,911 while the Nasdaq gained 16 points closing at 11,095.
