MILK:
Class III milk futures tried to hold gains, but the weakness of barrel cheese and dry whey limited price gains. Class IV futures closed lower, which was a surprise due to the gain in the butter price and nonfat dry milk remaining steady. The tariff situation is uncertain as there may be some compromise to the initially proposed tariffs. This may keep changing daily but will eventually become old news. The February Federal Order class prices were released today. The Class II price was $12.08, down $0.50 from January. The Class III price was $20.18, down $0.16 from the previous month. The Class IV price was $19.90. down $0.83 from January. It has been quite some time since Class IV was below Class III. The income over feed price for the Dairy Margin Coverage Program in January was $13.85, an increase of $0.47 from December. The January soybean meal price average was $316.97 per ton.
AVERAGE CLASS III PRICES:
| 3 Month: | $17.92 |
| 6 Month: | $17.90 |
| 9 Month: | $18.03 |
| 12 Month: | $18.03 |
CHEESE:
American cheese production in January totaled 474 million pounds, up 0.2% from January 2024. Italian-type cheese production totaled 522 million pounds, up 2.2% from a year ago. Total cheese output reached 1.21 billion pounds, up 0.8% from January 2024. Dry whey output totaled 76.2 million pounds, down 1.9%. Lactose output totaled 91.8 million pounds, up 2.6%. Whey protein concentrate totaled 38.2 million pounds, down 10.4% from a year ago.
BUTTER:
Butter production totaled 218 million pounds, up 0.5% from January 2024. Nonfat dry milk output totaled 154 million pounds, up 11.0%. Skim milk powder production totaled 35.5 million pounds, down 37.6%. The production of regular ice cream was 59.6 million gallons, up 20.1% from a year ago.
OUTSIDE MARKETS SUMMARY:
May corn closed up 4.25 cents per bushel at $4.5575, May soybeans closed up 12.75 cents at $10.1175 and May soybean meal closed up $6.30 per ton at $299.80. May Chicago wheat closed up 11.50 cents at $5.4825. April live cattle closed up $1.90 at $196.55. April crude oil is down $1.95 per barrel at $66.31. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 486 points at 43,007 with the NASDAQ is up 268 points at 18,553.
