Stay-ability of High Milk Prices

The Class III milk and cheese prices have seen fireworks in the past few weeks. If you heard us on the air yesterday, Ryan Yonkman, the vice president of producer services for Ever.Ag, said it was due to bullish buying events and reports stacking up on each other.

He says that demand hasn't necessarily been great this year, but it's been better than expected and price-supportive for dairy producers…

“There was a lot of expectations around poor demand. And I’d say a lot of poor demand ended up being okay demand. And you’re doing that on the backside of what was record exports through Q2 when we can all remember that milk was not $23, it was more like 15. That time helped us clear some product and cleared it into a market where milk continues to surprise the industry, not only domestically but globally in that U.S. milk production remains negative and likely to stay there for a while.”

Higher U.S. milk and cheese prices are not alone on the global market. Yonkman says other regions are seeing new highs, which is giving the U.S. some staying power in the global dairy trade…

“We’ve got European prices making new highs for the year, so we’re not alone, which I think really helps giving some staying power if you will to some of these prices here domestically.”

Ryan Yonkman of Ever.Ag.