As Butter and Powder prices continued to give Class IV a nearly $2.00/cwt advantage over Class III through mid-July, Class IV will continue to drive the Class I "mover" in August.

USDA announced the Class I advance base price or "mover" for August at $15.77. This is 11 cents higher than July and $5.73 higher than August of 2009. The August Class I "mover" is the highest since November of 2008. Class IV continues to be the "higher of" as the advanced pricing factors for Class IV skim peaked at $2 over Class III for the first two weeks of July. This is the determining factor for the advance Class I base price for next month.

Butter continues to chart a strong path--hitting $1.80/lb Thursday (July 22) on the CME. Cheese prices have been rallying as Block Cheddar topped $1.60 and Barrels closed the week at $1.56/lb on July 23.