The optimism present at the Moorepark Open Day on Tuesday was tempered by the fact that it was another tough day at the Global Dairy Trade (GDT) with the index falling by 3.3%.

Skim and butter were the big casualties, continuing the trend from recent weeks. Skim milk powder (SMP) fell in value by 6% while butter fell in value by 10.3%. It was a similar story on the European spot market with butter dropping in price by €95/t and SMP dropping in price by €60/t.

As we previously highlighted there has been a big increase in butter and SMP production over the last 18 months and it seems that the market doesn’t want any more skim, at least for now.

The only good news from the GDT was that whole milk powder held fairly steady with just a 0.4% drop in value.

Cheddar and anhydrous milk fat fell in value by 3.1% and 3.4% respectively so it wasn’t a good auction result with demand back in all key categories with the exception of WMP. Whole milk powder did drop in price on the European spot market by €55/t while cheddar prices dropped by €60/t.

It’s fair to say that the rally in prices for most of the key products which commenced in late April has once again been beaten by falling prices since June and we’re now back at the same level as early April.

The only exception is for WMP which seems to be holding its own better than the rest.

The big question is where to from here, is this the new floor?