News

Hot weather may send cheese prices soaring

July 4, 2005

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Remember last year's mild, wet summer?

If you live east of the Mississippi, those memories have evaporated in this summer's ceaseless heat and sparse rainfall. With no end in sight to the current weather pattern, dairy market watchers are predicting a rise in cheese prices.

The stress that hot and dry weather puts on dairy cows manifests itself in reduced milk yields and lowered solids and fat — two crucial elements in cheese making. Despite USDA reports of strong milk and cheese production through May, arid conditions, reduced forage quality and the strain on feed-related crops since then could deliver a sucker punch to cheese users' margins in the coming weeks.

In the July 1 edition of Dairy & Food Market Analyst, editor Jerry Dryer wrote that "a very knowledgeable source" told him that late summer block cheese prices of $1.70-$1.75 are possible.