CCBA
The 41st Annual Convention of the California Cheese and Butter Association was held May 4 - 6, 2006 at the beautiful Hilton Waterfront Hotel in sunny Huntington Beach, California. The Waterfront Hotel is located across Pacific Coast Highway from Huntington Beach, world famous for the Huntington Beach Pier which hosts the annual world surfing championships. The weather was warm, breezy and sunny and the relaxing tone was set for the weekend as soon as everyone arrived. The evening's cocktail reception was held outdoors and overlooked the beach and was highlighted by the setting sun over the blue Pacific Ocean. All were free to choose their favorite dinner locales to finish the evening.
Friday's business sessions began with a continental breakfast and as tradition demands, artistically displayed platters of a wide variety of cheeses. After opening comments by Convention General Chairperson, Renae Nelson, Program Chairman Jim Taylor/Cacique Cheese introduced the opening speakers for the day. First up was Dr. James Rouse. Dr. Rouse, holder of many degrees in a variety of medical and psychology areas began the convention with an uplifting discussion on aspects of physical and emotional health.
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The
Newsletter of the California Cheese & Butter Association 
JULY 2006 Lisa Waters, Editor His presentation included his studies on personal health, both emotional and physical as well as attendee participation. After being perked up by Dr. Rouse, an informative and lively discussion was provided by Mike Stoker about the "behind the scenes" actions of government both at the state and national level. Mike is an attorney whose practice emphasizes land use, government and business law. Mike also has and currently serves in various governmental positions. His involvement has been long and varied. Mike's discussions included his understanding on state and federal proposed legislations on guest workers and regulatory statutes in the dairy and related industries. His concluding remarks were a personal "handicapping" of the upcoming state primary elections The day's business session was adjourned for an afternoon of beachcombing, shopping, relaxing and golf. The annual convention golf tournament was held at Mile Square Golf Club with 20 people participating. The evening's activity began with a cocktail reception then a delicious and varied Cinco De Mayo themed buffet dinner. After all were filled with items such as enchiladas, quesadillas, fajitas, carnitas and wonderful desserts, Jim Lowes/WMMB and Entertainment Chairman, began the evening's fun with the CCBA Olympics. Competition was commenced by teams made up by table and became very spirited as the evening went on. |
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His presentation included his studies on personal health, both emotional and physical as well as attendee participation. In between keynote speakers, Chef Jeff Littlefield from the Hilton Waterfront Hotel presented some tasty treats created from cheese and butter. This has become a traditional inclusion to the annual seminar and gives us a different perspective on our industry. Concluding the business session, Rudy Westervelt/Kroger Company tied in his experiences hiking for 2 weeks on the John Muir Trail for over 200 miles to life experiences. His different periods of preparation and the actual hike gave us all an opportunity to reevaluate how we prepare for each day and year to come. The finale of the weekend came Saturday evening with the semi-formal dinner/dance. Following a delicious dinner, the convention committee received their recognition for a job well done. New board member, Jean Hendrix was introduced as well as the current board of directors and officers. Jean Hendrix was then honored as 2006 CCBA Hall of Fame inductee. At that point the 41st Annual California Cheese and Butter Association Convention was adjourned until next year in Northern California at Squaw Creek, Lake Tahoe. The party then commenced.
The Cheese Report - Update
To those of you who attended our great CCBA Convention in early May at the Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort, the Cheese Report given at that time, and the predictions made, were a far cry from the Cheese Reports of the past several years.
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Catching everybody up on those previous years was a "Perfect Storm" in our marketplace that contained among other things, poor weather, high feed costs, shortages of Posilac (which is a yield enhancing hormone), and the resultant low yield per cow. Adding to these miseries further were higher herd culling, the high priced Euro, and the resultant market speculating that was easily driving pricing even higher including a little panic buying. In fact we set a couple of all time high pricing levels in those years.
With the above in mind, my Cheese Report at this year's convention was absent most of these negative factors. In fact, I indicated "Relative Stability" which manifested itself with low milk prices, fair demand, increased cheese inventories," many avenues to utilize milk, and the soon to begin "Spring Flush". My predication this year in early May was for continued low Cheese Market prices through mid-year, and baring some unforeseen negative industry event, possibly through the fall and up to winter. So far, we are following this pattern of low Cheese Market Prices.
Today (as of June 26th) the time of this writing, the Cheese Market remains unusually low at $1.1750 for Block and $1.1650 for Barrel. To magnify how dramatic this is, the market at this same date a year earlier was $1.5025 on Block and $1.4500 on Barrel, a swing of $.3275 cents on Block & $.2850 cents on Barrel.
Today we do find ourselves with one negative, that being unseasonably and early hot weather. This is lowering the yield per cow, however offsetting this is the number of cows being added to the various herds is running at a greater rate (even with some culling) so that overall milk in the market is still increasing.
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Although there are some areas of the country in the East with problems, most large milk producing areas are increasing milk supplies ahead of last year. Cheese inventories are also increasing which is further depressing cheese prices at the consumer level. It is also giving the cheese consumer a low price source for protein.
As of today and once again baring the unforeseen, cheese prices (looking at this snap shot in time), should continue below last year well into the Fall and end up the year with average pricing well below 2005. The very best to everyone!
The Butter Report
California Milk production continues to outpace previous years. This year the states milk production is expected to be greater than 38.5 billion pounds, which is up from the 37.6 billion pounds in 2005. Nationally milk production was up 4.1% during the first 5 months of this year and is projected to finish +2.8% for the year, as the milking herd and output per cow grow. As a result, butter inventories are building ahead of previous years too.
On the consumption side, the strong business climate with low unemployment should help support increased usage and growth of butter, but the outlook seems to be that the growth in consumption will not be enough to reduce inventories and significantly increase dairy (butter) prices this year.
Butter pricing this year has remained very close to the support level ($1.06). The most recent weekly average is $1.1580 (6/23/06). Several sources still believe that the butter market will be in the $1.30 range during the later part of the year but heavy inventories will keep the downward pressure on price for the rest of this year.
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2007 CCBA Convention Mark your calendars now for the 2007 CCBA Convention being held at newly renovated Resort at Squaw Creek May 3, 4, 5, 6. Chere' Hedges/Tony's Fine Foods and Heather Holtslander/Select Trade Sales & Marketing will chair the event. Stay tuned for more information soon!
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