The USDA’s reporting widely mixed month for dairy product production in September.
The cheese total of 1.15 billion pounds was up 0.1% on the month, but down 0.3% on the year, with gains in American and Hispanic type cheeses canceling out losses for Italian type cheeses.
Getting ready for the holidays, butter production totaled 145 million pounds, an increase of about 3% from both the previous month and last year.
Dry milk product production was down sharply, while whey products were firm to higher, and frozen product production fell below year ago levels.