At the Chicago Mercantile class III milk futures closed lower at midweek as the milk supply continues to grow and cash markets remain weak. December down a penny at $13.84. January through June 2019 dropped 10-21 cents per cwt. while the second half softened 1-6 cents. January 13 cents lower at $14.18. February down 15 cents at $14.44. March down 19 cents at $14.83. April through November contracts were a penny to 21 cents lower. Class IV was mixed with January through December 2019 results ranging from 7 cents lower to 3 cents higher.
Barrels were down $0.0050 at $1.3150. Blocks were unchanged at $1.41. Dry whey was unchanged at $0.4725. Butter was down $0.02 at $2.18. Three sales were made ranging from $2.18 to $2.1825. Nonfat dry milk was down $0.0075 at $0.9350. Two trades were made at $0.9325 and $0.9350.
The November Milk Production report was released on Wednesday by the USDA and resulted in year over year growth of 0.6%. The October cow numbers were adjusted 3,000 head higher to 9.368 million while November cow numbers were published at 9.36 million. Compared to last November, the U.S. milking herd is now 38,000 head smaller. Milk per cow in the month of November grew 19 pounds year over year, or 1%. In the end, 17,370,000 pounds of milk were produced during November 2018.
