Dairy Markets Week in Review
The cash cheese market has a long way to recover. The block price fell to the government support price of $1.13 per pound to start the week on Monday, May 11, but reversed gears and regained some Wednesday, only to give most of it back Thursday. It closed Friday at $1.1325 per pound, down a half-cent on the week, and 94 3/4-cents below a year ago when the blocks hit $2.08, and were on their way to the record $2.2850 in mid May.
Barrel finished Friday at $1.08, up 2 1/2-cents on the week, but 95 cents below a year ago. Fifty eight cars of block traded hands on the week and 41 of barrel. The NASS-surveyed U.S. average block price fell to $1.1792, down 3.3 cents. Barrel averaged $1.1121, down 3 cents.
Butter closed Friday at $1.2650, up 2 1/2-cents on the week, but still 23 1/2-cents below a year ago. Only eight cars were sold on the week. NASS butter averaged $1.1980, up 0.6 cent. NASS nonfat dry milk averaged 82.75 cents, up 0.4 cent, and dry whey averaged 23.01 cents, up 1.7 cents.
Price support purchases for the week totaled just 2.1 million pounds of nonfat dry milk, raising the cumulative total to 236.1 million.
Provided courtesy of Dairyline.