Dairy Market Drivers: Rise and Fall of Breakfast Cereals; Cheese and Whey Price Updates; and Food Inflation in a Minute!

Oct 30, 2026

Quick Bites: Price Gains for Cheese and Whey

U.S. cheese prices spent the first nine months of the year trading in a fairly narrow range at the CME. With the price sticking between $1.28 and $1.67 per pound, it was the least volatility seen in spot cheese in two decades.
But that all changed in the last month, when CME spot blocks fell to $1.27 per pound the final day of September. That was the lowest price since May 2020.
Then, prices leapt higher, skyrocketing 29.75 cents between October 9 and October 16. It was the biggest Friday-to-Friday jump since July 2023. Prices got as high as $1.80 per pound, a level last seen in May 2025, before sliding lower.
What is behind this recent roller coaster? It’s not a lack of milk for cheese manufacturing. USDA’s most recent report showed U.S. milk production reached 19.44 billion pounds in September, up 2.6% from a year earlier.
The issue may be less about how much cheese is available and more about what kind buyers can get. When cheese prices dipped to multi-year lows, it may have been a catalyst for buyers who were waiting on the sidelines to jump in. Export demand remains strong as well, with U.S. prices still well below global competitors. Reports of manufacturing downtime and potential quality concerns also could have limited theyoung cheddar supply eligible for CME trading recently. That tightness may be contributing to the volatility.
Spot dry whey has also been on a record-breaking run, reaching an all-time high of $0.8950 per pound on October 16. Growing demand for high-protein products has encouraged manufacturers to prioritize higher-value whey proteins, limiting supplies of traditional dry whey. More product is also moving abroad, with dry whey exports up 66% year-over-year in August.
Cheese and whey have both seen impressive price gains, but will it last? History tells us that sharp jumps are often solving a temporary problem. With plentiful milk supply, it seems the extreme rallies in cheese and dry whey could be relatively short-term in nature, but the market will keep eyes on other factors that may be contributing to the sudden volatility.

Video: Methionine Requirements for Lactating Sows - Cierra Kozole

In this episode of The Swine Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, Cierra Kozole, PhD candidate in Swine Nutrition at the University of Guelph, explains how methionine supports lactating sows beyond milk protein synthesis. She discusses updated requirement estimates, source comparisons, methylation demand, and why modern sow genetics may require more precise amino acid strategies. Listen now on all major platforms!

"Methionine supports protein synthesis while also serving critical functions through methylation pathways that influence multiple biological processes."

Meet the guest: Cierra Kozole / cierra-kozole-772b64253 is a PhD candidate in Swine Nutrition at the University of Guelph in Canada. Her doctoral research focuses on refining estimates of methionine requirements for primiparous lactating sows, including evaluating methionine sources, nutrient partitioning, methylation reactions, and the links among amino acid supply, milk production, and sow protein retention. Learn more from Cierra Kozole on The Swine Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, available on all major platforms.