First Milk has announced that, from August 1, 2024, its member milk price will increase to 41.0ppl for its manufacturing standard litre, including the member premium.
This is an increase of 0.7ppl from its July milk price, which stands at 40.3ppl.
Commenting on the announcement, First Milk vice chair and farmer director Mike Smith said:
“There has been recent positive momentum in global dairy market prices driven by sentiment, which now appears to have stabilised.
“Many of our members continue to face challenging on-farm conditions, with unpredictable weather continuing to impact forage availability both now and potentially for the upcoming winter.
“As a result, we are pleased to announce this increase to our milk price at this time.”
Milk Price
Kingshay’s senior farm services manager has said it is likely that the range in milk pricing, even within contracts, is “going to widen”.
According to the dairy consultancy’s Dairy Costings Focus Report, following a sharp drop in milk prices to an average of 36.49ppl in July 2023, values have steadily risen – but still do not cover the full cost of production or provide a fair return for family labour for many farmers.
The gap between the highest and lowest milk prices has also fluctuated, peaking at 13.8ppl in March 2023 before narrowing to 11.6ppl in March 24.
Senior farm services manager, Kathryn Rowland, said: “Given the increased focus on climate change, it is essential that the market can deliver premiums to cover the extra effort and costs on-farm.
“Milk processors like First Milk are already offering premiums for regenerative farming practices and going forward, it is likely that the range in pricing even within contracts – let alone between them – is going to widen.”
An insight into trends over the past 10 years reveals that while average milk yields have slightly increased and remain in the mid 8,000 litres/cow range, milk solids have hit a new record of 646kg/cow.
This marks almost an 11% increase over the past 10 years, and outpaces the 5.4% rise in milk yield.
This is most likely due to producers focusing on feed efficiency and fulfilling their milk contract requirements, the Kingshay report said.
Average herd sizes have increased by two head, year-on-year, and now stand at 219 cows compared to 185 in 2014.
Stocking rates have also seen a rise, reaching 2.39 cows/ha compared to 2.25 a decade ago.
Kingshay said the “atrocious weather” meant that milk from forage has decreased by 3% on last year, to 2,691 litres/cow – although Scotland managed to buck the trend with a 16% year-on-year increase.
