2016 U.S. cheese and butter production continues to run ahead of the 2015 pace. U.S. milk production this year is ahead of last year’s pace and a lot of that is going towards dairy products. Cheese and butter supplies are at or near record levels for this time of year and prices are low, but the U.S. government has announced plans to buy cheese and butter demand is expected to increase in the fourth quarter for the holiday season.
Cheese production for July was 1.017 billion pounds, up 1.4% on the year with Italian type cheese up 3.2% at 444.245 million and American type cheese 0.2% higher at 398.043 million pounds. Butter production was 143.595 million pounds, 6% above a year ago.
Nonfat dry milk for human consumption was pegged at 152.948 million pounds, down 1.5%, and skim milk powders came out at 46.343 million pounds, 32.9% higher. Dry whey totaled 83.925 million pounds, a 2.7% increase, with lactose for human and animal consumption at 97.720 million, 8.2% higher, and whey protein concentrate at 37.821 million pounds, 9.3% lower.
Hard ice cream production was 69.713 million gallons, down 3.7%, with the lowfat total at 41.748 million, 3.2% lower.
The USDA’s next cold storage report is out September 23rd.
Source: Brownfield
