Market Reports

Red ink flowed on LaSalle Street this week as the trade reckoned with the fact that, although milk production continues to shrink, cheese abounds. Ongoing concerns about demand also pressured the markets.

Concerns about demand have been simmering near the surface for several months. This week, rising interest rates and a plummeting stock market brought the anxiety up to a full boil.

The butter market illustrates the conundrum that besets much of the dairy complex. Stocks are relatively low and production is falling seasonally. Milk and butter output are not rising anywhere that matters. U.S. butter is much cheaper than foreign product, so trade is further eroding supplies.

In Europe the high costs of physical expansions, additional labor, replacement heifers, and feed costs, when coupled with market uncertainty, creates a risk level that prevents widespread expansion. The same factors are hampering milk output on this side of the Atlantic as well.

It’s unusual to see premiums at this time of year, and it’s raising concerns about summer supplies. If driers and cheese vats aren’t full to the brim amid mild May temperatures, how much will output slow in the July and August heat?

As indications of slower milk output came to the fore, milk futures climbed. Dairy producers will cash some record-shattering milk checks next month, as May Class III and IV contracts are both a little above $25 and the Class I base price is $25.45.