Dairy Markets Week in Review
It was the little train that couldn’t. Block cheese shot up 10 1/2-cents the first three days of trading this week but stopped short of $2.00. It reached $1.9875, but gave back some of the gains Friday and closed at $1.9725, still up 9 cents on the week and 76 1/4-cents above a year ago. Barrel, like block, jumped 7 cents Monday but it was down hill from there and closed Friday at $1.93, up 2 cents on the week, and 74 3/4-cents above a year ago. Six cars of block traded hands on the week and eight of barrel. The NASS-surveyed U.S. average block price hit $1.7035, up 4.3 cents. Barrel averaged $1.7224, up 5.8 cents. The record block price is $2.20 per pound in April 2004 and some people believe we’ll top that.

Cash butter closed Friday at $1.5025, down 4 1/4-cents on the week, but 33 1/2-cents above a year ago. Nine cars were sold. NASS butter averaged $1.4739, up 0.6 cent. NASS nonfat dry milk averaged $1.8049, up 1.1 cent, and dry whey averaged 76.25 cents, up 0.8 cent.

Provided courtesy of Dairyline.