The following excerpts are from USDA’s Dairy Market News for the week of Oct. 26 to 30. Read the full report here.

Retail demand for butter is up this week

BUTTER HIGHLIGHTS: Butter production is steady to increasing. Demand, especially retail, is up. Some manufacturers are reporting Thanksgiving demand is higher than normal. Also, there are retail advertisements increasing sales. Current demand exceeds production, so some manufacturers are micro-fixing current inventory. Manufacturers do not want to build stock levels as lower prices are expected at the end of the year. Cream supplies are mixed in the Western region, while available in the Central and Northeastern regions. Friday at the CME Group, Grade AA butter closed at $2.7700 up $.3000 from last week’s close.

Retail, foodservice accounts show strong demand for cheese

CHEESE HIGHLIGHTS: Milk intakes have slowed for most cheese plants. Retail and food service demand remains active to strong, which is drawing on manufacturer inventories at expected rates, further counterbalanced by lower export activity as a result of international prices not supportive to exporting cheese. In CME Group trading Friday, barrels closed at $1.5950, up $.0450 from last Friday and 40# blocks closed at $1.6200, up $.0075 from last Friday.

Milk production slows in much of the country; steady in the midwest

FLUID MILK: Farm milk production is seasonally lower in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Pacific Northwest, Utah, and Idaho. Milk output remains steady in the North Central states, Florida and Arizona. Milk intakes are mixed in the Central region. The remnants of Hurricane Patricia did not affect the milk yield in the Southwest. Thus, milk production is improving in California and New Mexico. Bottled milk demand eased in Florida. However, is mostly steady in the rest of the country with some unticks in California and Arizona. In the Central region, prices on spot milk loads range from flat Class to $1.00 over Class. Cream demand continues strong in all regions of the country.

A propoal to update  the Dairy Market News Working Guidelines

Dairy Market News is proposing updating the Dairy Market News Working Guidelines. This proposal is the result of an industry comment period. The updates would allow DMN market reports to additionally include information and sales prices reported by individuals and firms functioning as marketing agents selling on the behalf of dairy product manufacturers.

The Working Guidelines updates are intended to capture more information on pricing and market conditions and reflect the evolution of the marketing of dairy products. Currently, market pricing information is collected for first sale, f.o.b. producers’ plants or warehouses. The changes would be effective starting with Report 1, January 2016. Comment by October 30, 2015 to: DMN[at sign]ams.usda.gov

Link to current DMN working guidelines.