On the Chicago Mercantile Exchange milk futures carried its negative tone through to another week along with the cash market. Class III milk struggled to find momentum higher. March fell 1 cent to $16.24, April fell 20 cents to $16.82, and May fell 22 cents to $17.56. The balance of 2021 was down 2-21 cents. Class IV milk was unchanged in March at $14.30, April at $14.76 and May fell 7 cents to $15.06/cwt. The balance of the year was unchanged to 10 cents lower.
The CME spot trade was relatively quiet with dry whey unchanged at $0.6125. Blocks down $0.03 at $1.76. Barrels down $0.0150 at $1.4375. Two trades were made at $1.4375 and $1.45. Butter unchanged at $1.6650. One trade was made at that price. Nonfat dry milk down $0.0125 at $1.14. One trade was made at that price.
The USDA says dairy stocks continue to build during the month with butter stocks seeing some decline in their rate of gain. Cheese stocks during February totaled more than 1.4 billion pounds, up five percent from 2020 and up two percent on the month. Butter inventories were up six percent from the previous month and up 17 percent higher than last year at more than 352 million pounds.
