The Latest: September - 2025
No Bulls to Be Found on LaSalle Street
There were no bulls to be found on LaSalle Street this week. The bears roamed freely, showing no fear of an overcorrection even as parts of the dairy complex scored multi-year lows. Red ink poured into the cheese and milk powder trade and deluged the butter market. CME spot butter plummeted to $1.86 per pound, down 16.25ȼ in just five trading sessions. Spot butter is down more than 40% from the mid-summer high, languishing at its lowest level since October 2021, nearly four years ago. The weakness carried across the futures board, with May through October 2026 contracts dropping 10ȼ or more on Friday.
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CME spot whey powder touched a record low on Monday, trading below 26ȼ for the first time in its five-year tenure at the spot market. But it perked up from there, finishing today at 27.5ȼ. That’s still cheap, but it’s a penny higher than last Friday.
View reportSpot whey also dipped below 30ȼ in 2020, when the pandemic closed nearly every gym in the nation and demand for protein drinks plummeted. Today, the cause is much less dramatic. Processors are simply making more whey powder than the market needs.
View reportThe bears prowled LaSalle Street this week, and the bulls were nowhere to be found. Spot dairy product values slumped, and milk futures followed them lower. The cheese market led the way downward.
View reportBy all accounts, there is still plenty of milk, and driers are running hard. In March, U.S. output of NDM and SMP reached 236 million pounds, up 0.6% from a year ago.
View reportThe feed markets tumbled once again this week and dairy producers can thank Brazilian farmers for the setback. Brazil lacks the infrastructure to hold this year’s bin-busting production. Brazilian soybeans outprice U.S. soy by such a wide margin, two ships with Brazilian soybeans will hit the U.S. Southeast coast this week.
View reportWith more cows in the barn, milk production climbed, but the increase was far from formidable. Our competitors overseas also reported modest growth.
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