New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra has increased its forecast milk price payout to farmer suppliers by $0.20 to $6.75/kg of milk solids (27.5c/l). The co-op has also issued a bullish milk price forecast of $7/kg of milk solids (28.4c/l) for the 2018/19 milking season.

Uruguayan cattle slaughterings fell almost 5% in the last week to just under 41,000 head. While the steer kill remained unchanged, there was a big drop-off in cow slaughterings (-10%) below 19,000 head. Uruguay has slaughtered almost 1m cattle in the year to date.

Milk collections from European dairy farms increased by 2.3% in the first quarter (January to March) of 2018. This equates to an extra 53,000t of milk. The majority of the extra milk came from Germany, Belgium and Poland, which more than offset declines in Dutch and UK production.

US prices for soya beans and maize corn have rallied since Monday, as the US and China appeared to call a ceasefire over a potential trade war. US soya bean prices rallied almost 3% this week to $10.25/bu, while maize corn prices were up 1% at $4.05/bu.