THE LAND — JANUARY 7/JANUARY 14, 2022
www.thelandonline.com — “Where Farm and Family Meet”
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Cash cheese, butter price jumps, then catches its breath This column was written for the marCheese output is steady to lower as keting week ending Jan. 7. delays to those supplies and ongoing staffing shortages are preventing plants The U.S. Department of Agriculture from running full schedules. announced the December Federal order Class III milk price at $18.36 per hunAfter gaining 36 cents the previous two dredweight. This is up 33 cents from weeks, CME butter soared to the highest November, $2.64 above December 2020, price it has seen since Dec. 9, 2015, closand the highest Class III since May. The ing Jan. 7 at $2.7425 per pound, up 29 December price put the year’s average at cents on the week and $1.3625 above a MIELKE MARKET $17.08, down from $18.16 in 2020, and year ago. Twenty-six cars sold on the WEEKLY compares to $16.96 in 2019. Jan. 7’s late week. The highest CME price ever was morning Class III futures portended a $3.135 per pound set on Sept. 25, 2015. By Lee Mielke January price at $20.29; February, Butter churners tell Dairy Market $21.61, and March at $21.18 per cwt. News that cream availability has The December Class IV price is slimmed down and quickly. $19.88, which is up $1.09 from Multiples have climbed roughly 10 November, $6.52 above a year ago, and the highest points week to week in some cases, and haulers are Class IV price since October 2014. The 2021 Class tight as well. Butter churning is expected to slow if IV average is $16.09, up from $13.49 in 2020, and this trend continues, which is likely while cream compares to $16.30 in 2019. cheese producers and other cream end users play catchup and siphon cream from the pool. Bulk butMeanwhile, cash cheese and butter started 2022 skyrocketing and saw some expanded trading limits, ter is very tight, says Dairy Market News, and domestic butterfat values are increasing rapidly. but then reversed gears as traders absorbed the November Dairy Products report. Cream has become more available in the West in recent weeks however some processors are having After jumping 10.75 cents the previous week, the difficulty getting it due to severe weather and a cheddar blocks marched to $2.0650 per pound on shortage of truck drivers. Demand for cream is Jan. 5 (the highest since Nov. 12, 2020), but the next increasing in the region. Butter demand is day dropped 5.5 cents and closed Jan. 7 at $1.995. unchanged in retail and food service and internaThis is up 1.5 cents on the week and 7.75 cents tional demand remains steady, despite port congesabove a year ago when they jumped 26.75 cents to tion delays. Spot availability is limited; unsalted $1.9175. butter is more difficult to obtain than salted. The barrels climbed to $1.8725 Jan. 5 (the highest Contacts cite strong demand and tight inventories since Nov. 12, 2020), but finished the first Friday of for the higher prices. Butter output is steady, though 2022 at $1.865, 15.5 cents higher on the week and some butter makers say that delayed deliveries of 21.25 cents above a year ago. They also narrowed production supplies are limiting their production. the spread to 13 cents. Sales for the week totaled Grade A nonfat dry milk closed Jan. 7 at $1.71 per five cars of block and four of barrel at the Chicago pound, up 5.50 cents on the week and 52 cents Mercantile Exchange. above a year ago, with 21 sales reported. Dairy Market News says cheese demand requests CME dry whey closed Jan. 7 at 75.75 cents per have already met contacts’ recent expectations, as pound, another new record high, up three-quarter of customers return to the fold. Midwestern cheesea cent on the week and 25.75 cents above a year makers say orders are strengthening but production ago, on one sale. rates vary from plant to plant as employee numbers range from adequate to short. Spot milk was still n priced at holiday level accessibility, and similar to Speaking in the Jan. 10 “Dairy Radio Now” broadprevious week discounts, although a number of con- cast, HighGround Dairy’s Lucas Fuess said concern tacts expect those discounts to dissipate after this remains among traders regarding weaker milk proweek. duction here in the United States and key areas Cheese demand is steady in western retail mararound the world. He added that, when we see the kets, while food service demand is, reportedly, strength in Class IV products like nonfat dry milk, increasing. Educational institutions’ purchasing is it lends support to cheese as well. Hopefully, with picking up as schools reconvene. International Class IV prices being as strong as they are, the demand is unchanged. Port congestion and a shorthigher Class III milk prices will find their way to age of truck drivers continues to cause delays. dairy farmer pocketbooks. Severe weather in parts of the West was causing Checking production, November Cheese output further delays — both to loads of cheese and suptotaled 1.119 billion pounds, according to the plies. Milk availability is increasing in the region, USDA’s latest Dairy Products report, down 2.9 perthough some cheese makers report that snow was cent from October but 1.6 percent above November slowing delivery of production supplies. 2020 and the highest November ever. Year-to-date
MARKETING
output hit 12.5 billion pounds, up 3 percent from the same period in 2020. Wisconsin produced 278.8 million pounds of the November total, down 3.7 percent from October but 1.1 percent above a year ago. California output, at 202.3 million, was down 1.7 percent from October, but 0.8 percent above a year ago. Idaho contributed 77.4 million pounds, down 9.9 percent from October and 6.9 percent below a year ago. Italian style cheese totaled 482.9 million pounds, down 1.3 percent from October, but 6.2 percent above a year ago. Year-to-date, Italian cheese is at 5.3 billion pounds, up 3 percent. American-type cheese, at 437.8 million pounds, was down 4.6 percent from October and 2.7 percent below a year ago. Year-to-date, American was at 5.1 billion pounds, up 3.9 percent. Mozzarella totaled 373.7 million pounds, up 4.1 percent from a year ago, with year-to-date at 4.1 billion pounds, up 1.3 percent from 2020. Cheddar, the cheese traded daily at the CME, totaled 307.4 million pounds. This is down 13 million pounds or 4.1 percent from October and 14.2 million pounds or 4.4 percent below a year ago. Year-to-date, cheddar stands at 3.6 billion pounds, up 2.6 percent from 2020. Butter churns produced 156.3 million pounds, down 4.7 million pounds or 2.9 percent from October, and 16.6 million pounds or 9.6 percent below a year ago. Year-to-date, butter output stands at 1.9 billion pounds, down 2.8 percent from 2020. Yogurt output totaled 349.5 million pounds, up 7 percent from a year ago, with year-to-date at 4.3 billion pounds, up 4.1 percent. Dry whey production totaled 74.6 million pounds, down 6.9 million pounds or 8.4 percent from October, but 5.9 million pounds or 8.7 percent above a year ago. Year-to-date dry whey output was at 846.8 million pounds, down 2.6 percent from a year ago. Dry whey stocks inched up to 61.6 million pounds, up 3.5 million or 6 percent from October, but were 5.9 million pounds or 8.7 percent below those a year ago. Nonfat dry milk output totaled 132.2 million pounds, up 9 million pounds or 7.3 percent from October, but down 23.2 million or 14.9 percent below a year ago. Powder year-to-date totaled 1.8 billion pounds, up 2.2 percent. Stocks fell to 196.5 million pounds, down 29.2 million pounds or 12.9 percent from October and were down 52.4 million pounds or 21 percent below those a year ago. Skim milk powder production amounted to 49.1million pounds, down 19.6 million pounds or 28.5 percent from October’s level (which was revised up 10.4 million pounds) and was down 15.9 million See MIELKE, pg. 18
