On the Chicago Mercantile Exchange milk futures opened the week in lower trade continuing the negative trend spilling over from grains and cash markets. Class III Milk was unchanged in May at 18.95, June fell 58 cents to 17.55 and July fell 74 cents to 18.16/cwt. The balance of 2021 was down 13-53 cents. Class IV milk also slid lower, May unchanged at 16.33, June fell 19 to 16.83, and July fell 30 cents to 17.28/cwt. The balance of 2021 falling 6-38 cents.
The CME spot trade had cheese blocks down $0.04 at $1.53. Ten trades were made from $1.53 to $1.56. Barrels down $0.0275 at $1.58. Five sales were made from $1.58 to $1.5875. Butter down $0.05 at $1.82. Fifteen sales were made from $1.82 to $1.8450. Nonfat dry milk down unchanged at $1.2975. Dry whey up $0.0025 at $0.6475. One trade was made at $0.6450.
The USDA released our April Cold Storage report. The USDA says butter stocks are growing while cheese drew down some. Cheese stocks during April totaled nearly 1.5 billion pounds, down two percent from 2020 and one percent on the month. Butter inventories were up eight percent from the previous month and three percent higher than last year at more than 385 million pounds.
