Dairy Markets Week in Review

Cash cheese prices continued to recover the second week of March. The 40-pound block price ended the week at $1.25 per pound, up 5 cents, but still 56 cents below that week a year ago. The 500-pound barrels closed Friday at $1.3175, up 9 3/4-cents on the week, but 42 1/4-cents below a year ago, when the barrels rolled down hill almost 13 cents. Only six cars of block were traded this week and nine of barrel. The NASS-surveyed U.S. average block price hit $1.2531, up 2.3 cents. Barrel averaged $1.2580, up 1.8 cents.

Butter closed the week at $1.1850, up 1 3/4-cents, but 16 3/4-cents below a year ago. Thirteen cars were sold. NASS butter averaged $1.1161, up 2.2 cents. NASS nonfat dry milk averaged 81.49 cents, down 0.4 cent, and dry whey averaged 16.19 cents, up a half-cent. Price support purchases for the week included 5.2 million pounds of nonfat dry milk and no butter.

The University of Wisconsin’s Dr. Robert Cropp said cheese prices are reasonable, moving into the spring, especially in barrel due to increased barbecuing at home and he thinks cheese will run around $1.30-$1.40 by summer.

Retail featuring for the Easter/Passover holiday is spurring butter demand, according to Cropp. Store sales have been running soft, he said, but buyers view these prices as an incentive to buy.

Provided courtesy of Dairyline.