Organic Herd has announced a 1ppl increase in its member milk price effective from July 1, 2024.

The increase will take the British farmer-owned cooperative’s price to 51ppl on a standard litre basis.

Commenting on the July price increase, Organic Herd’s director of membership and communication Sara Ogborne said: “Our latest price rise reflects the growth in demand we are seeing for our organic milk.

“The July increase is in line with our commitment to returning to our members incremental but, crucially we believe, also sustainable improvements in their milk price.”

Organic Herd’s farmer members were informed of the July price increase on May 29 in line with its board’s commitment to give at least one month’s notice to them of any milk price change.

First Milk

First Milk’s member milk price will increase by 0.8ppl from July 1, 2024, taking its manufacturing standard litre to 40.3ppl – including member premium.

Commenting on the price, farmer director and vice chair Mike Smith said: “This spring has been particularly challenging for many dairy farmers, so it is great that we have been able to deliver this increase in milk price to our members at this difficult time.

“As always, we will continue to do all we can to maximise member returns in the months ahead.”

Milk price

The UK average milk price for April 2024 was announced by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) as being 37.21ppl, down 0.92 pence (2.4%) on the previous month.

The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) said milk prices will be updated once it has received Northern Ireland’s April 2024 milk price from the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA). 

The average price paid for milk in Northern Ireland in March was 37.66ppl, 1.5% lower than the average paid in GB.

Prices paid on non-aligned contracts were 0.83ppl below those for aligned contracts in March.

The GB 5-year average price was 35.14ppl in March, up 5.2% from the same the month in 2023, when it was 33.40 ppl.