April 24, 2012

Dairy cow slaughter in the US for March 2012 amounted to 278,000 head, according to USDA's Livestock Slaughter report.

That is 17,000 head more than February; however, on a daily average basis March slaughter was down 0.4% against February and March 2012 slaughter was 3.7% or 10,000 head more than last year and culling during Q1 2012 is up by 13,000 head, but this is not enough to stifle the 43,000 head growth in the US dairy herd since the end of 2011.

The number of states contributing to the increase is long and distinguished. California, the largest milk producing state, leads the pack with a 6,000 head increase during Q1 2012, followed by: Michigan, about 5,000 head; Texas and Wisconsin about 4,000 head; Arizona about 3,000 head; Florida, Indiana, New Mexico and Utah about 2,000 head. It is interesting to note, that the dairy herd within the 23 Selected States increased by 34,000 during Q1 2012 compared to the US herd at 43,000 head. This means that dairy herds outside of the key milk producing states are also growing such as South Dakota and Tennessee about 2,000 head a piece.

Weekly dairy cow slaughter for the week ending April 9 totalled 63,100 head unchanged against last week but 4,900 head more than the prior week.

After yesterday's absence, barrel cheese reappeared at the CME spot cheese market today. Eleven loads of barrel cheese traded between US$1.45 per pound and US$1.46 per pound before closing unchanged at US$1.46 per pound. A total of 31 loads of barrel cheese traded this week. A single bid in the block market moved the spot Cheddar block price 1.75¢ higher to US$1.5275 per pound. The spot butter market settled unchanged at US$1.4175 per pound after two at the market trades. CME Grade A and Extra Grade NDM prices each fell a penny to US$1.1675 per pound and US$1.1275 per pound respectively on offers.