MILK
The early part of the week showed strong milk futures price gains with traders anticipating buyers of cash would step up at lower prices. The anticipation was for a repeat of the price movement that took place in March. Class III milk futures defied the direction of underlying cash prices. However, continued weakness resulted in liquidation of futures contracts. Milk futures closed the week lower than the close of last week. The large barn fire and the loss of 18,000 cows in Texas did not have any influence on the market. That is a lot of cows to take out of the nation's dairy herd in a matter of hours. It did not even have a psychological influence on trading that was noticeable. The rest of the country has moved into spring flush with increased milk output.
AVERAGE CLASS III PRICES
| 3 Month: | $18.10 |
| 6 Month: | $18.54 |
| 9 Month: | $18.83 |
| 12 Month: | $18.82 |
CHEESE
For the week, blocks declined 5.50 cents with 10 loads traded. Barrels declined 20.75 cents with 70 loads traded. Dry whey slipped 0.25 cent with 47 loads traded. Trading activity in barrels and dry whey was exceptional. Even though prices moved lower, sellers remained active wanting to move product to the market. Buyers were able to pick up a lot of cheese and dry whey without having to bid up to get it. A report released earlier in the week indicated the dollar value of cheese sales for the recent 52-week period increased over the previous period. Natural cheese sales increased 7% year-over-year totaling $17 billion while process cheese sales increased 7% totaling $3.4 billion. However, year-over-year unit sales of natural cheese declined 1% while process cheese sales declined 3%. Some of the major processing companies showed strong gains of both value and unit sales while other showed stronger gains in value while seeing lower unit sales.
BUTTER
For the week, butter increased a penny with 11 loads traded. Grade A nonfat dry milk increased 0.50 cent with seven loads traded. The price movement of butter this week was confined to a narrow range. Buyers and sellers are taking care of business in the country through regular channels reducing the need to come to the daily spot market to buy and sell. Churning is actively keeping the market balanced.
OUTSIDE MARKETS SUMMARY
May corn gained 14 cents closing at $6.6625. May soybeans declined 0.50 cent closing at cents closing at $15.0050 with May soybean meal down $3.90 closing at $459.70 per ton. May wheat gained 15.50 cents closing at $6.8250. April live cattle declined $0.75 ending at $174.75. May crude oil gained $0.36 closing at $82.52 per barrel. The Dow declined 143 points closing at 33,886 while the Nasdaq declined 43 points closing at 12,123.
