By  E. W. Lang

Block and barrel cheese ended the week at $1.78 and $1.79 per lb.  Butter was right in there at $1.78 per lb. and all of these products were within a few cents of last week's close.  Class III Milk Futures for the fourth quarter of this year average $18.66 per cwt., and Class IV averages $17.89 per cwt.  These are gains of 29 cents and 44 cents from a week ago.  The November and December Milk-Feed Index averages $9.55 per cwt., a gain of 57 cents since last Friday.  This makes for two consecutive weeks of better dairy product values and lower feed costs. 

If I'm reading the CME charts correctly, November's Class III price of $19.57 yesterday tied the contract high price of May 12 of earlier this year.  December CME corn on May 12 was $6.24 per bushel.  It was $5.24 yesterday, so you can see how margins are affected.  It was $4.17 per bushel two years ago and had been at that level for dang near two years.  You can see how our cash grain brethren suffered with their air powered grease guns, coffee time and having to wait in line at the elevator, or whatever it is that they do.

Fertilizer prices are biting in to margins on crop production, however, so maybe these people should get some livestock and a manure spreader and help themselves out a little bit.  Supply disruptions for fertilizer and other supplies for livestock and crop production are forecast to continue in to next year.

John Deere workers went on strike a few days ago.  Their last strike was during the farm recession of the mid 1980s and largely over health benefits.  Today, it's the perfect opportunity to walk off the job as value of labour is increasing by the hour after unions have pretty much been clobbered by the day since the air traffic controller terminations of the early 1980s.  Labour value has also suffered from the internationalization of manufacturing and trade.

In the interest of full disclosure, I grew up in an anti-union home and an anti-union church, where the words 'union' and 'communist' were interchangeable.  As such, I am aware of the unreasonable, costly concessions that unions can get from collective bargaining and walk outs.  Conversely, I'm also aware of what management can do to workers, their dignity and culture when labour is viewed only as dollars per item produced.  Labour leaders and management both generally pursue greed and excess, sometimes to an immoral degree.

Right now, it's advantage labour, owing to a covid shut down and an economic re-start with new market forces that are righting some wrongs for working men and women in a costly fashion for all consumers.  I suspect there will be more organization among the service, healthcare, Wal-Mart and Amazon folks, even as educator and public employee unions have already seen their best days.