U.S. cheese production during December 2016 was up 1.3% on the year at 1.050 billion pounds, topping a billion pounds for the third month in a row.
Export demand has been fairly slow and stocks in cold storage were at or near record levels several times during 2016, but there’s plenty of milk available for production and domestic demand has been relatively consistent.
Italian type cheese production was down 1.1% at 460.585 million pounds, while American type cheese was 3.9% at 415.728 million pounds. Other types of cheese came out at 14.068 million pounds, 1.7% higher.
Butter production was 6.7% below a year ago at 163.757 million pounds, the third month in a row with a decline as manufacturers respond to large supplies.
Cheese production last year was 12.074 billion pounds, up 2% from 2015, and butter production was 1.889 billion pounds, 2.2% higher.
The USDA’s next cold storage report is out February 23rd.
Source: Brownfield
