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Continued expansion in the US dairy herd leading to increased milk production has continued to put extra tonnage on the massive stocks already held in cold storage throughout the country, according to the latest USDA cold storage report.
Natural cheese stocks stored in refrigerated warehouses increased by 3% in January and by 6% in February, with 1.36bn pounds (572,727 tonnes) in US warehouses. The level of inventory has not been this high since reporting began one hundred years ago in 1917.
Butter stocks are also rising fast. In February, butter storage grew by 28% from January 2017 and by 20% from February 2016. Total stocks of butter came in at 282.5m pounds (128,409t), up by 61.1m pounds (27,772t) from January. This is more than double the five-year average.
These stock levels are putting pressure on both spot and future prices on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
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