Dairy Profit Monday, March 8
An (almost) daily recap of dairy information:
March 8, 2010
MilkPEP ad toasts Michelle Obama’s initiative
The Milk Processor Education Program unveiled a new ad to applaud Michelle Obama’s new initiative, “Let’s Move,” which aims to solve childhood obesity within a generation. MilkPEP joined with the National Dairy Council and its “Fuel Up to Play 60″ program with the National Football League, as well as with the School Nutrition Association, to create the full-page ad saluting the First Lady and reinforcing milk’s role in helping kids maintain a healthy weight. The ad appeared Monday in “USA Today,” “The New York Times” and “The Washington Post.”
Events: Alltech Symposium
After a global crisis of historical proportions, agriculture must bounce back in 2010. In order to bounce back, businesses must focus on people, profits, and planet, the core determinants of today’s business success. This ‘triple bottom line’ will assume center stage at Alltech’s 26th International Animal Health and Nutrition Symposium taking place in Lexington, Kentucky from May 16-19, 2010. The event, coinciding with Alltech’s 30th anniversary, promises to deliver a program like no other, providing ideas and tools to agribusiness to help determine where to best invest resources for maximum return and future sustainability. For further information and to register for Alltech’s 26th International Animal Health and Nutrition Industry Symposium visit: www.alltech.com/symposium.
New product: DariTech introduces SRSystem
DariTech, Inc. of Lynden, Wash., introduced its new Sand Recovery System (SRSystem), including the Sand Cannon and One-Shot sand separators, and offering a revolutionary split dewatering flight, sand scoop and fixed flight augers. Sand laden manure is either scraped or flushed out of the barns. In the case of scrape manure, it is lifted into the base of the Sand Cannon, our new flighted, rotating inclined drum. A special hybrid DT-360 recycles dilution water for the sand laden manure, at the same time stacking sand-free solids for removal. The sand is washed as it’s carried to the end of the flighted drum, to be stacked and ready for re-use.
For more information, contact: DariTech 8540 Benson Rd., Lynden, WA 98264; phone: (360) 354-6900 or visit www.daritech.com.
Closing on Monday, March 8:
Cheddar blocks – down 1¢, to $1.2875/lb.
Cheddar barrels – unchanged at $1.2500/lb.
Butter – up 2¢, to $1.4700/lb.
Extra Grade nonfat dry milk – unchanged, at $1.12/lb.
Grade A nonfat dry milk – unchanged at $1.11/lb.
Class III milk futures prices declined through April 2011, and were steady to slightly higher thereafter.
DAIRYLINE RADIO: Tuesday
Cheese prices continued to bleed the second Monday of March. University of Wisconsin-Madison professor emeritus Robert Cropp said a seasonal downturn after the first of the year was anticipated, but “I don’t think anybody anticipated it to be this low.” Cropp said the January Milk Production report did not show a large enough decrease in milk production or in cow numbers, cheese stocks are relatively high, and cheese production is high, but, he warned, “This market has to start strengthening some as we move into next month.”
Cash butter continues to climb, gaining 2¢ on Monday and hitting $1.47/lb., driven for the most part by the Easter-Passover holiday demand. Some people are building stocks for the summer, Cropp reported, thinking that supply will be tighter in the summer. There’s been some interest on the export market, and butter stocks are down a little from a year ago.
World nonfat dry milk prices are substantially above U.S. prices, although they have softened from a month or so ago, according to Cropp, but likely got a little too high and demand resistance formed. Listen to the conversation with DairyLine’s Lee Mielke.
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Dave Natzke, Editor