In our Agribusiness section, we summarise the industry soundings from the experts on where milk prices are going, despite the fact that early year pronouncements have been proven wrong.

Given the turmoil, a well-informed young farmer asked me this week where would I budget on milk prices and costs for 2024 to evaluate a new opportunity.

It’s a very good question and very hard to answer in the current market environment. Looking back to look forward on the big ticket items, we concluded that 35 cent/litre base milk price ex VAT might be worth investigating with €300/t for feed and current prices for fertiliser.

A more positive outlook might well materialise over a ten year period, however, for budgeting purposes and taking into account tax bills for last year (see p12) etc, cash flow is king so to err on the reality and low side is important.