CME establishes dairy’s most vital benchmark For those who closely follow dairy product pricing, monitoring CME movement, and particularly the block and barrel cheese prices, is a critical component of their sales planning. Specifically, CME markets set the benchmark for dairy product pricing and provide a floor for the market. During the March 3 Hoard’s Dairyman DairyLivestream, commentators discussed how they view the CME and its influence on prices. “I will say that we have to be careful with this because when we’re pricing this milk, it’s not the price for milk that comes down from the federal orders. It’s the minimum price for milk,” the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mark Stephenson said of CME prices.