Butter Cash-Settled Jul '26 (BDN26)
| Barchart Symbol | BD |
| Exchange Symbol | CB |
| Contract | Butter Cash-Settled |
| Exchange | CME |
| Tick Size | 0.025 per pound ($5.00 per contract) |
| Margin/Maintenance | $1,210/1,100 |
| Daily Limit | 75 cents per pound ($15,000 per contract) Expanded limit 15 cents |
| Contract Size | 20,000 pounds |
| Months | All Months |
| Trading Hours | 5:00p.m. - 4:00p.m. Sun-Thur, 5:00p.m. - 1:55p.m. Fri CST |
| Value of One Futures Unit | $200 |
| Value of One Options Unit | $200 |
| Last Trading Day | Business day prior to USDA Butter Price announcement |
Description
Butter is a dairy product produced by churning the fat from milk, usually cow's milk, until it solidifies. In some parts of the world, butter is also made from the milk of goats, sheep, and even horses. Butter has been in use since at least 2,000 BC. Today, butter is primarily used as food, but in ancient times, it was more commonly used as an ointment, medicine, or illuminating oil. Butter was first churned in skin pouches thrown back and forth over the backs of trotting horses.
It takes about 10 quarts of milk to produce 1 pound of butter. Butter manufacturing is the third-largest use of milk in the US. California is generally the largest-producing state, followed closely by Wisconsin, with Washington a distant third. Commercially finished butter is comprised of milk fat (80% to 85%), water (12% to 16%), and salt (about 2%). Although butter prices are correlated with milk prices, they also have their own supply-and-demand dynamics.
Butter consumption has declined in recent decades because pure butter contains high levels of animal fat and cholesterol, which have been linked to obesity and heart disease. The primary substitute for butter is margarine, which is produced from vegetable oil rather than milk fat.
Butter Futures and options are traded at the CME Group. The CME's butter futures contract calls for the delivery of 20,000 pounds of butter and is priced in cents per pound. Futures on butter are traded on the European Energy Exchange and the Singapore Exchange.
Prices - The average monthly price of butter at the CME in 2025 fell by -23.1% yr/yr to $2.22/pound, below the 2024 record annual average high of $2.88/pound.
Supply - World production of butter in 2025 rose +2.8% yr/yr to 12.321 million metric tons, a new record high. The world's largest butter producers in 2025 were India (58.4% of global production), the European Union (17.0%), the US (8.7%), New Zealand (4.3%), and Russia (2.2%). Production of creamery butter by US factories in 2025 rose by +5.7% yr/yr to 2.362 billion pounds.
Demand - Total commercial use of creamery butter in the US in 2025 fell by -2.0% yr/yr to 2.278 million pounds. Cold storage stocks of creamery butter in the US on January 1, 2025, rose by +7.4% yr/yr to 214.284 million pounds.
Trade - World imports of butter in 2025 rose by +6.1% to 661,000 metric tons. US butter imports in 2025 fell by -31% to 72,000 metric tons. World butter exports in 2025 rose by +12.6% to 1.173 million metric tons. US butter exports in 2025 rose by +146% to 113,000 metric tons.
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