Block cheese gained 14 cents this week to close at $2.27 per lb.  Barrels gained 22 cents at $2.25 and butter gained seven cents at $2.79 per lb. 

Class III Milk Futures for March, April May and June gained, on average, 46 cents per cwt. and average $24.13 per cwt.  Class IV for those same four months average $25.18 which is up 28 cents for the last five trading days. 

The Class III Milk-Feed Indices for April, May and June average $11.04 per cwt., a gain of 46 cents for the week. 

A load of large squares of 4th cutting alfalfa with a 192 RFV topped the Dyersville Hay Auction this week at $270 per ton.  Hay, generally, remains abundant and reasonable in much of the U.S., at least in comparison to feed grains.  I continue to think that significant hay acres will be killed, tilled and put to corn or beans this spring. 

The Russia/Ukraine feed grain situation affects and threatens 11% of the world's calories.  Here in the U.S. we, generally, feed as swine at the trough, waste a lot and want not a lot.  As a people, the poorest among us are among the heaviest of us. 

Losing 11% of the world's calories is enough to deliver starvation to some parts of the world and food riots to other parts of the world.  In the U.S., we will just complain about the cost of Doritos, Mt. Dew, Mac and Cheese, and weiners.  And no one will starve here because the poor still have access to food, shelter and some basic essentials as a right, right or wrong.  

Interest rates are ticking upward.   We're still fully 10 percentage points under the interest rates of my early farming days.  No  farmers of that era have forgotten the 10% to 15% retail interest rates at the bank, $2.10 corn at the elevator, and very good quality small squares of alfalfa prices at $1.50 each.   

Milk was supported at the $9.60 to $10 level, but  dairy auctioneers were still busy, and good registered dairy sales often were opened with prayer, followed by the  tractors, implements and milking equipment, then cows and heifers.   I worked dispersals for Donny Vine and other sale managers at the time, and those fellows got calls asking for dispersal dates late at night, sometimes. 

So lets hope inflation is contained before interest goes back up to double digits.