Correspondent
CHICAGO
Milk production figures for the top 23 states in October released on Wednesday afternoon of this week indicated a 1.1 percent drop when compared to October of 2008. This followed a .5 percent decline in the September comparisons, for which this year’s milk production was revised upward by 16 million pounds from the preliminary report.
California accounted for slightly more than the net decline in October for the 23 states with a 5.3 percent or a 179-million pound production falloff to a total of 3.207 billion pounds. Wisconsin continued to run contrary to the national trend with a 3.5 percent or 71-million pound increase to a total of 2.107 billion pounds for the month.
Except for Texas, regional trends persisted in the direction of milk production for the October comparisons. In percentage of decline, Arizona stood at the top with a cutback of 10.6 percent, followed by Colorado at 8.9, Missouri at 5.4, Florida at 2.7 and Idaho at 1.4 percent. Slight declines were also reported for New Mexico, Washington, Oregon and Utah.
Accompanying Wisconsin on the upside in milk production for October were Indiana at 4.4 percent, Illinois at 3.3, Ohio at 3.1, Minnesota at 2.5, Texas at 2 and Michigan at 1.4 percent. For the 23 states, the October milk production was 14.313 billion pounds this year compared to 14.469 billion pounds in 2008.
Across the 23 states, average milk production per cow increased by 21 pounds from last October to 1,721 pounds. Wisconsin had a 50-pound increase to 1,675 pounds while California slipped by 20 pounds to 1,815. New Mexico continued to have the highest milk per cow average of 2,020 pounds, up by 100 pounds from a year ago.
The 196,000 head reduction in dairy cow numbers to 8.316 million in the 23 states accounted for the decline in milk production. California’s count was down by 78,000 head to 1.767 million, Wisconsin was up by 5,000 to 1.258 million, Texas was down by 15,000 to 413,000 (milk per cow was up by 95 pounds to 1,720), New Mexico was down by 17,000, New York was down by 11,000 and Pennsylvania was down by 10,000 cows.
In advance of the release of the milk production report, the spot markets on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange did not have any completed trades on Wednesday morning of this week. One attention-getting point, however, is the continued wide spread in the price of Cheddar blocks and barrels.
Cheddar barrels held at $1.5825 per pound on Wednesday – up by 1.25 cents from a week earlier while barrels stayed at $1.4425 – down by 2 cents from a week earlier. There was one uncovered offer to sell both a carload of blocks and barrels.
The AA butter spot market price on Wednesday held at $1.5250 per pound, where it has been since Monday, Nov. 9. Two carloads were offered for sale at that price.
Non-fat dry milk spot market prices for Grade A and Extra remained at $1.40 per pound on Wednesday. Futures prices for dry whey ranged from 34.75 cents in November to the high 30s and just over 40 cents for spring and summer months in 2010.
At the market’s close on Wednesday of this week, Class III milk futures prices declined somewhat for all months from November through June of 2010. Closing prices were $14.05 for November, $14.34 for December, $14.49 for January of 2010, $14.60 for February, and in the $15s (mostly the upper half) for all subsequent months through October of 2011.
