Dairy Profit Tuesday
An (almost) daily recap of dairy information:
Dec. 22, 2009
Take the survey, win $100 gift card
Western DairyBusiness and Eastern DairyBusiness editors will explore topics related to manure management in a dairy producer survey. Dairy producers completing surveys by Dec. 30 will be entered into a drawing for a $100 VISA gift card. To complete the 10-question survey, please visit:
Cheese stocks up
CME Daily Dairy Report editor Alan Levitt said commercial American cheese stocks uncharacteristically increased in November, and remain at record-high levels for the month. On Nov. 30, commercial American cheese inventories were 582.7 million lbs., up 10.6% from last year, according to USDA’s “Cold Storage” report released this afternoon. Total commercial cheese inventories were 961.4 million lbs., up 17.4% from a year ago. Commercial butter inventories were 142.2 million lbs., up 18.5% from last year.
Partnerships and innovation drive 2009 sales
America’s dairy producers, through their investment in the dairy checkoff, helped the dairy industry drive sales through food industry partnerships and innovation in 2009.
“In a year where dairy producers faced economic hardships like never before, the dairy checkoff responded by redirecting more than $35 million to further focus on immediate- and long-term sales,” said Tom Gallagher, chief executive officer for Dairy Management Inc.™ (DMI), which manages the national dairy producer checkoff. “By building powerful partnerships and developing innovative new product channels, our efforts (along with low retail prices) helped drive between 2.5-3.5 billion pounds in additional milk sales in 2009.” To see details, visit http://dairywebmall.com/dbcpress/?p=5100.
Sheffield Bio-Science, Foremost Farms USA to expand pharmaceutical lactose production
Sheffield Bio-Science and Foremost Farms USA announced a long-term manufacturing agreement that includes a joint investment to expand production of pharmaceutical lactose at Foremost Farms’ Rothschild, Wis., plant. Foremost Farms, headquartered in Baraboo, Wis., and Sheffield Bio-Science, headquartered in Beloit, Wis., initially began a partnership in 2007. The lactose is sold internationally under the Foremost and Fast Flo trademarks. For more information, visit http://dairywebmall.com/dbcpress/?p=5103
Tuesday’s CME cash dairy product prices
Cheddar blocks: unchanged, at $1.70/lb.
Cheddar barrels: unchanged, at $1.43/lb.
Butter – up 0.25¢, to $1.3275/lb.
Extra Grade nonfat dry milk – unchanged, at $1.40/lb.
Grade A nonfat dry milk – unchanged, at $1.37/lb.
Class III milk futures prices were lower.
Corn, soybean and soybean meal futures were all lower.
For today’s market activities on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Chicago Board of Trade, visit http://www.dairybusiness.com/dairybusiness_markets.php.
CME trading closes at 12:15 p.m. (central) on Thursday, Dec. 24 and remains closed on Friday, Dec. 25.
CME trading closes at 3:15 p.m. (central) on Thursday, Dec. 31 and remains closed on Friday, Jan. 1.
Wednesday on DairyLine Radio
The beef checkoff-funded Beef Quality Assurance program benefits dairy producers as well, according to Michigan dairy producer and Beef Board member Ken Nobis. Speaking in Wednesday’s DairyLine, Nobis said “Our primary concern is quality milk, but dairy producers have significant sales of beef, and we want to see those sales continue to be strong and anything to increase consumption helps that part of our dairy operation.”
Dairy farmers are in tune with quality assurance because of the milk issue. “We just transfer that type of activity to the Beef Quality Assurance,” said Nobis, who educates himself and his employees on injection sites and treatment of the animals. “It all runs together and we think it’s all very helpful to increase the profitability of our dairy farm.” For more details, and to listen to the conversation with DairyLine’s Lee Mielke, visit www.dairyline.com.
For a sample copy of Dairy Profit Weekly, or subscription information, visit www.dairyprofit.com or phone: 800-334-1904, ext. 244.
Dave Natzke, Editor