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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.}

16/06/20

Two milk price increases for Medina suppliers

From 15th June an extra 1ppl. From 1st July an extra 1.5ppl. This takes the average standard liquid litre across the various Medina contracts to 23.25ppl. Whilst not a great price and still one of the lowest for a medium sized liquid processor, it’s moving up and it is paid on all litres with no Medina B price. Note it is highly unlikely any Medina farmers will qualify for the governments dairy hardship fund.

16/06/20

1.1ppl curiously delayed price increase for suppliers to Joseph Heler (Cheese) from 1st August

Helers cheese in a letter dated 3rd June notified its producers of a 1.1ppl milk price increase from 1st August. Helers decided several years ago not to provide information to www.milkprices.com and others in order to enable standard liquid and manufacturing prices to be compared, so these are unavailable. That apart, Helers producers are not all asleep and have been quick to notice the following: Letter dated 1st March 2019 with 30 days advance notice of a 0.

16/06/20

Wyke Farms (Cheese) to stand on for June

This maintains a manufacturing standard litre price of 26.94ppl and based on a liquid standard litre of 26ppl.

16/06/20

Milk Quotas return for Pensworths Liquid Milk

Ian had to verify the claim that Pensworths liquid milk was restricted to only 2 litres per customer on the 5th June in Potterne (no, Ian doesn’t have any connection) near Devizes. Unbelievable, especially given Pensworths low ex farmgate milk price.

16/06/20

27.6ppl was the average farmgate milk price in April

DEFRA have provisionally calculated the average farmgate milk price for April deliveries at 27.6ppl. That must be the widest gap on record, with some farmers (see below) paid 10/11ppl and others paid more than 3x this amount. Compared to the April 2019 average price, the reduction was 2.2%.

16/06/20

Mirror mirror on the wall, who paid the lowest milk price of all?

For some time, Freshways have dominated the negative UK Dairy press for numerous well reported reasons. However, other milk purchasers appear to have almost snook under the radar, having paid some of the lowest prices in the UK during this challenging period. One is Llaeth Cymreig who paid several producers in April between 10p to just over 12p including a B litre payment for the month of only 5ppl.

16/06/20

Extremely Cheap Milk from Morrisons

Congratulations to an eagle-eyed reader who spotted an incredible deal offering 1 box of cereal with 4 pints of semi skimmed milk for only £1.25. Maximum 20 per customer

16/06/20

GDT Auction average up 1.9% today

Notable movements were: SMP + 3.1% to average US $ 2609 tonne WMP + 2.2% to average US $ 2829 tonne Cheddar + 1.4% to average US $ 3631 tonne

04/06/20

Dairy Farmer Hardship applications open on 18th June

Following on from last nights (Tuesday) news story on this website and in our free market bulletin, DEFRA have this morning issued a press release confirming qualifying English Dairy Farmers can apply for up to £10,000 to help assist with the financial impact of coronavirus on April and May deliveries. To be absolutely clear this is nothing to do with when the deliveries made were actually paid into your bank accounts its about the average base price you were paid in the calendar month for April deliveries compared to that paid on February deliveries.

03/06/20

Dairy Farmer Hardship applications open on 18th June

Following on from last nights news story on this website and in our free market bulletin, DEFRA have this morning issued a press release confirming qualifying English Dairy Farmers can apply for up to £10,000 to help assist with the financial impact of coronavirus on April and May deliveries. Note the £10,000 is not a per month maximum it’s a total maximum for April and May combined.

02/06/20

Hardship fund announcement due this week

In a draft email Ian has seen, the proposed details of the governments English Dairy Farmer Aid/Hardship fund are concluded and due to be announced this week by DEFRA. Whilst the final announcement could be tweaked a bit, these are the nuts and bolts: All claims will be based against your February deliveries milk statement. To qualify for any payment, you must be able to demonstrate a minimum 25% reduction in income between the price you received in February to that paid in April.

02/06/20

1.1ppl milk price reduction for suppliers to Joseph Heler Cheese – from 1st June

According to our records, this June price reduction is the only one we have heard of and a bit of a surprise coming from a cheese processor. Its looking very lonely and running against the tide.