There is no immediate end in sight to the current downturn in farm gate milk prices, with processors in Britain all reporting price drops for milk produced in November and December.
Unlike NI, processors in Britain generally announce prices in advance. The biggest reduction is at First Milk, who confirmed a 6p/l cut to apply from 1 December, taking its standard manufacturing litre down to 35.85p/l.
Liquid milk supplier Freshways implemented a similar 6p/l cut from 1 November and will apply a further 2p reduction from 1 December, taking its standard litre to 34p/l.
Price reductions are not as severe elsewhere. Suppliers to the Muller Advantage programme will receive 40pl from 1 December which is a 1.5p/l cut on its November price.
Cheese maker, Barbers is down 3.87p to 38.64p from 1 December while Arla has confirmed its conventional milk price will fall 2.63p/l from 1 November, taking it to 42.71p/l.
The prices quoted in Britain are generally for milk at a base of 4.2% butterfat and 3.4% protein.
Adjusting that back to NI base levels of 3.95% butterfat and 3.25% protein lowers most quoted prices by over 1.5p/l.
Commodities
Meanwhile, European commodity prices are still heading downwards, although the weekly price drops are much less severe than what has seen during August and September.
At Wednesday’s Dutch Dairy Board auction, butter dropped a further €50/t to €5,100/t. Whole milk powder was down €70 at €3,460/t, while skim milk powder dropped €40 to a price of €2,020/t.
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