by E.W. Lang
Paul and King wrote from prison, and I'm writing from the former debtor/prison colony of Georgia, awaiting air transportation to the North American International Livestock Exposition in Louisville, KY.
The follower and the leader didn't have the internets, probably had more time, and were certainly better writers. I, in turn, have a few minutes between flights to share some of this week's information on dairy prices from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
Class III Milk for November and December are off 17 and 61 cents from last Friday, ending this week at $20.02 and $19.09 per cwt.
Block cheese ended the week at $2.01 per cwt. Barrels ended Friday's trade at $2.33 per lb., off of the near all time record high of $2.39 a few days ago. Commercial cheese buyers are acquiring only short term needs while price is over $2 per lb.
A retreat from recent Class III highs is less concerning than the spot prices reported today in USDA's Dairy Market News of $1.50 under to $1.50 over Class. For reference, one year ago, spot was generally $1.00 over Class.
Cream is called plentiful and some processors are scheduling extra shifts to process the abundant amount of milk coming in.
Milk-Feed Index for December is $11.39 and January is $10.12, and 2020 averages $9.42 per cwt., largely in concert with futures for next year which average $17.33 on Class III Milk.
USDA posted an all-milk price forecast for 2019 of $18.60 which is up 20 cents from a month ago. They estimate 2020 will come in at $18.85 per cwt., the same as their estimate last month, and still discouraging this month.
USDA says that more government milk subsidies will arrive this month or next. These are the MFP 2, round two payments to adjust for market loss from the international tariffs. We got round one not very long ago.
Supreme fresh cows at Premiere in Withee, WI, were called stronger at $1800 to $2300 at Wednesday's auction.
The major indices on Wall Street closed at record levels today, even amidst some recent doubt from the White House that a trade agreement with China was forthcoming. Conventional wisdom is that any near term US/PRC agreement would largely benefit agriculture just time for primary election season. .
Speaking of Supreme Cows, OCaM and EWLang.com are sponsoring the DAT RAWF Canadian National Dairy Show coverage, as well as several of the shows at the North American in Louisville.