Butter fell for the 14 th time in the last 19 days, trading 1.75¢ lower. There were no bids or offers on NDM; the spot extra grade price fell 18.25¢ last week, while the Grade A price had declined 11.75¢ in the previous six days.

Milk futures continued to tumble, with MAR and APR each off nearly 30¢. MAR and APR Class IV futures were off 32¢. Butter futures dropped an average of 1.8¢ in the FEB-AUG contracts, settling at the lowest average level since last April. Whey futures were mixed, with most months tacking on gains after last week’s sell-off.

Corn futures have been fairly steady over the last week ahead of Thursday’s “Crop Production” report. MAR, MAY and JUL corn average $6.47/bushel, up 3¢ from a week ago.

Commercial disappearance of butter in 2011 is estimated at 1.81 billion lbs., up 10.7% from 2010 levels (see chart). Exports were up around 12%, while domestic consumption increased almost 11%.

Total cheese use was around 10.97 billion lbs. last year, up 3.0% from 2010. Cheese exports were up about 29%, while domestic consumption was up about 2.1%. American cheese consumption was up about 1.2% and use of other varieties was up about 4.3%.

Further Reading