Better with Butter
It’s time for your Southeast Regional Ag News. On the Ag Information Network, I’m Haylie Shipp.
Everything is better with butter - but that butter is starting to become a bigger ticket item!
Tight stocks led to record high butter prices last quarter. Butter prices were one of the hot dairy industry topics during last week’s World Dairy Expo. Tanner Emhke of CoBank explains…
“That's the news of the day, record high butter prices last quarter, and butter prices have remained fairly resilient surprisingly because of very tight stocks out there. And the question is to why and when is that going to change, obviously because that's going to change the price outlook.
Butter production is unique, as Emhke says, which is part of the reason why prices are high…
“A lot of that butter is made during the spring flush and then put into big gigantic freezers, which they hold throughout the year until they start staging it in the fall for the big holiday season. And so, the retailers they try to stage that inventory, if you will, in advance. Well, there was a scramble because all the retailers are a little concerned about the supply. Butter stocks are very, very tight because so much of our milk in this country increasingly goes to cheese. And when you're short on the spring flush, it's usually butter that's going to get the short end of the stick.”
He expects the high prices to remain through the end of the year.
