Ray Mueller

Correspondent

Chicago, IL. — Spot market prices for AA butter and Cheddar cheese barrels continued heading in opposite directions in trading through Wednesday of this week.

The butter price climbed above $2 per pound with a 5 cent gain on Wednesday for a day's closing price of $2.03. The day's trading session included three carload sales to put the week's total at 14 sales, an unfilled bid to buy one carload, and an uncovered offer to sell one carload.

Cheddar cheese barrels, meanwhile, completed a 21-cent per pound setback during the past trading week with another 3.25 cent loss on Wednesday to close at $1.67 per pound. Twelve carloads were sold to boost this week's total to 20 sales. An offer to sell one carload was not covered.

With no price movement since a 5.75 cent per pound drop since last week Friday, Cheddar cheese blocks stood at $1.8850 per pound in a spot market that didn't have any activity through Wednesday of this week.

Grade A non-fat dry milk posted a .50 cent gain on Wednesday to close at 89.75 cents per pound. One carload was sold to raise the week's total to eight sales, a bid to buy two carloads was not filled, and an offer to sell one carload was not covered.

Futures markets

With only single digit per hundred price changes in the Class III milk futures on Wednesday, all but three months through October of 2018 had prices in the $16s per hundred. Those months were January, February, and March of 2017 – all with Class III futures at $15.96 per hundred in early afternoon trading on Wednesday.

Prices for nearby months were $16.68 per hundred for November and $16.51 for December. The highest prices were $16.80 to $16.97 for August through October of 2017.

In the dry whey futures market, the 36.5 cents per pound for November was the lowest price on the trading board. Prices for most other months through October of 2018 were in a tight range of 38 to 40 cents per pound.

October PPD at 19 cents

The October producer price differential (PPD) at the Chicago base zone in Federal Milk Marketing Order 30 is 19 cents per hundred. Because of the transportation allowance, this converts to a minus 1 cent per hundred at the most distant milk receiving plants in central Wisconsin.

The PPD attracted 2.7708 billion pounds of milk into the payment pool for October. The use of the pooled milk was 10.2 percent in Class I (bottled fluid milk), 6.7 percent in Class II (soft dairy products), 78.2 percent in Class III (cheese), and 4.9 percent in Class IV (butter and milk powder). Components averages in the pooled milk were 3.87 percent butterfat, 3.16 percent protein, and 5.72 percent other solids.

Export report

On Monday of this week, Cooperatives Working Together announced requests by Dairy Farmers of America, Foremost Farms USA, and the Northwest Dairy Association (Darigold) of Washington for financial assistance on a total of 11 contracts to export dairy commodities.

Those products are 1.609 million pounds of Cheddar, Gouda, and Monterey Jack cheese and 308,647 pounds of 82 percent butter. They are going to buyers in Asia, Oceania, and the Middle East in deliveries scheduled until February of 2017.