Western cheese plants have been offering prices attractive enough to keep their plants full. The results are obvious. More cheese stocks means lower prices at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange each week. Lower cheese prices means lower milk prices. T he good news is that the market appears to be turning around.
Milk production is seasonally lower in the fall months.
And, more milk is used for bottling purposes as kids go back to school. That means there is greater competition for the available milk supplies as processors compete with bottlers for a shrinking supply. Cheese and butter buyers are busy this time of year gearing up stocks for the holiday season. B ecause of these market fundamentals, cheese inventories have finally begun to shrink. American cheese inventories in August dropped nearly 10 million pounds from the month before.