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Dairy Industry News and Features

Our Weekly News Bulletin is available by email. To receive it please email info@ipmsltd.co.uk.

^{Note, all standard litre prices are those quoted by www.milkprices.com and are based on the following:

The liquid standard litre 4% bf, 3.3% protein, 30,000/ml Bactoscans, 200,000/ml SCC, 1 million litres a year on EODC but before seasonality, monthly profile payments, balancing, B price additions, capital retentions or annual incentive schemes. The manufacturing standard litre is to exactly the same specification with the exception of 4.2%bf and 3.4% protein.}

^{Remember this bulletin continues to be available free of charge and takes the team at Ian Potter Associates considerable time to produce. The only encouragement to keep producing it is a combination of enthusiasm, tag sales & enquiries from our readers.} ^{All views expressed in this bulletin are those of Ian Potter Associates and a shed load of dairy farmers. It is necessarily short and cannot deal with various issues that arise in any detail. As a result it must not be relied on as giving sufficient advice in any specific case. Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the content but neither Ian Potter Associates nor Lydia Clare personally can accept any liability for any errors or omissions. Professional advice must always be taken before any decision is reached. For our privacy policy please click here.}

01/05/20

Crediton Dairy to Stand on until at least 1st July

This maintains their standard liquid litre price at 27.5ppl.

01/05/20

Muller rescind the 1st May 1ppl price increase but stand on until at least 1st July

Muller Direct farmers will not receive the agreed 1ppl 1st May price increase. This means it will be a stand on milk price at 25.25ppl plus 1ppl to 26.25ppl for farmers who qualify for the Muller Direct Premium and these prices will prevail until at least July 1st. In early April when the increase was announced, the heading on our April 2nd bulletin read; “1ppl Price Rise for Muller Direct farmers is a big surprise” and Ian commented that “It is likely to be the only milk price increase for a long time and given the market conditions outlined below short-lived”.

01/05/20

Mullers retailer supplement reemerges for March deliveries

Ian had completely forgotten this supplement was still in the wings but its back and for March deliveries from Muller Direct conventional contracted producers it will add a welcome 0.63ppl.

01/05/20

April’s volatile cream values summary

According to AHDB Dairy, the April cream price was extremely volatile ranging from a low of around £700 tonne to a top of £1200 an incredible 70% band width of price variation and ended the month at around £900 tonne. Note the value of cream to a liquid processor dropped by 29% between March and April worth 2.11ppl to a liquid processor and is down 39% compared to April 2019 a difference worth 3.

01/05/20

AMPE drops a whopping 18% (-5.16ppl) in a month

From the table at the top of this bulletin AHDB Dairy have confirmed that whilst MCVE continues to more or less hold its own AMPE has plummeted by 5.16ppl in just one month.

01/05/20

0.7ppl Milk Price reduction for Paynes Dairies (Liquid) suppliers – from 1st May

This reduces producers standard liquid litre price to 25.0ppl.

01/05/20

Freshways keep pushing producers towards the edge

In a letter to producers dated Friday 24th April, the only interpretation can be that Freshways have confirmed they have been buying cheap spot milk in order to “balance week to week and day to day based on sales fluctuations”. This statement hasn’t been well received by some of the producers Freshways told at very short notice to dump milk without payment from their processor.

01/05/20

Grahams give notice to six unwanted producers

Grahams Dairies in Scotland have given 12 months’ notice and the criteria for producer selection was: Attitude towards graham’s Dairy (AKA the awkward squad). Distance from Dairy. Milk Quality. Ability to forecast accurately. It’s a huge blow for the six involved who are estimated to supply towards 12 million litres in total. It is understood that producers are free to leave as soon as they want to but its unlikely given their alternative options are very limited today if indeed they have any.

01/05/20

Dairy Partners stand on with its May milk price

Along with Freshways, Dairy Partners confirmed to its producers it has been purchasing spot milk. The South Wales processor claims it needs the extra milk to increase factory output “utilising spare capacity with lower cost spot milk” rather than processing extra milk from its regular farmer suppliers. The declaration whilst up front and honest has not gone down well.

01/05/20

2ppl milk price reduction for Meadow Foods suppliers in Cumbria and South Wales - from 1st May (today)

This reduces producers standard liquid litre price to 22ppl for their A volume milk.

24/04/20

Freshways negative press continues and has registered with customers

During the past three weeks, the Daily Mail has run three stories involving Freshways. 9th April highlighted the on-farm dumping of milk. 16th April headline was “As his firm (Freshways) forces family farms to pour milk down the drain meet fat cat who creamed of a fortune from our farmers.” (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8223557/Balvinder-Nijjars-milk-firm-Freshways-cut-rates-40-cent-dairy-farmers-produce.

24/04/20

0.9ppl (1 Euro Cent) decrease for Arla members from May 1st

Arla are not immune from the worldwide effects of COVID19 but on the strength of this reduction, its product mix and ability to divert milk is greater than most. For sure this reduction wont help some of Arla’s processing competitors who appear desperate to drop farmgate prices asap and were praying for a 2ppl or more Arla price drop. This results in a standard manufacturing litre price of 29.