Butter – Stocks Continue to Decline According to USDA, January ’14 U.S. butter stocks continue to lag previous years, with January ’14 stocks of 138.1 million pounds coming in 33.3% below last year’s levels and 17.9% lower than the five year average January butter stocks. The YOY declines were the largest in over three years on both an absolute and percentage basis. Butter stocks were up 25.7 million pounds, or 22.8%, over December ’13 stocks as they begin their seasonal climb throughout the first half of the year. Most of the decline in YOY butter stocks can be attributed to an increase in exports, which accounted for 76% of the seasonal drawdown from May-December. Cheese – Stocks Remain Flat January ’14 U.S. cheese stocks of 1.02 billion pounds were relatively flat on both a month-over-month and year-over-year basis. January ‘14 stocks increased 0.6% month-over-month, but were 1.6% lower than January ’13 totals.