A risk management analyst says the dairy markets have gone

from rock bottom to record highs because of cheese. 

Mike North with Commodity Risk Management Group tells

Brownfield with blocks moved to $2.70 and barrels to over $2.32 a pound Monday,

and he’s expecting Class Three milk to keep going up in the short term.  “As you start running the math on that, it

suggests that July milk could in fact make a move towards 24 dollars.”

Class three prices for July and August moved up more than a

dollar a hundredweight Monday on the first day of expanded trading limits at

the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. 

North says it is unusual to have prices going up with so

much cheese in cold storage.  “This is a

very wild price environment and even with the fundamentals showing us lots of

inventory, that availability of fresh, less than 30-day-old product has

remained tight.”

North says the rock bottom milk and cheese prices of a few

months ago have been boosted by purchases for the food box program within the Coronavirus

Food Assistance Program, and prices will likely drop as quickly as they rose.  “It’s usually short-lived.  It’s usually very violent on the way up and

equally or more violent on the way back down.”

He also says as Class Three manufacturing milk prices get

out ahead of fluid milk, it’s possible producers will see some milk check

deductions.

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