USDA released the 2025 Annual Cold Storage data on Friday, February 27. For butter, the largest change was in August, where stocks were increased by 3.03 million pounds or 1.1% of the actual. November’s inventories were unchanged in this report, and after December’s sizable revision in the latest monthly Cold Storage report (-11.7 million pounds), they were not altered further, staying at 187.7 million pounds. Other revisions ranged from 30,000 to 1.1 million pounds, i.e., not too significant.
Total cheese stocks were upped in some months, with February to June each increased by over 25 million pounds, or nearly 2% of the actual. The next largest revision was made to September, at +10.2 million pounds, or +0.7% of the actual. However, inventories for Q4 2025 were largely unchanged, with the most significant revision of +2.0 million pounds (0.1% of the actual) coming in October. Most of these alterations were made in the Natural American Cheese category. All of the February to June revisions went to this variety, which was 3.1-3.3% of the actual. Changes to the rest of the calendar were significantly less. “Other cheeses” did not see any material updates.
