First Milk has announced that it is holding its December milk price at the current level. This means that its liquid standard litre price for November will remain at 27ppl and its manufacturing standard litre will remain at 27.9ppl, both including its member premium.

First Milk farmer director and vice-chair Jim Baird said: “Some of the short-term market uncertainty has been removed as the risk of a no-deal Brexit has reduced in the short term.

"Dairy commodity markets also appear to be fairly stable, with global milk production fairly static compared to last year and a steady global dairy demand.

“We will, of course, continue to work to return as much value as we can for our members in the months ahead.”

Tough decisions

NFU Scotland milk committee chair John Smith, a dairy farmer and First Milk member, said: “With the collapse of Tomlinson’s Dairies in Wales, the outcome of Muller’s review of its operations in Scotland and the closure of Campbeltown Creamery, there has been a series of really tough decisions and very worrying developments in the Scottish and UK milk industry in the past few weeks.

“It is good news that some sort of stabilisation, in terms of pricing and supply, are factors in First Milk’s decision to hold its price for December and we welcome similar announcements from others to hold prices, including Arla.”