If you look at the figures there has been an inexorable and steep decline in the overall consumption of milk for a long time, so I am afraid this is inevitable until the supply is reduced. That is why the supermarkets have the whip hand. Basic economics, but not nice nonetheless.
There may be a decrease in consumption of milk "per se" in the UK, but over the past few decades there has been an increase in its use in other ways - e.g. in my childhood, yogurt was unheard of - yet now it's on many shopping lists!
The real problem arose with the demise of the Milk Marketing Board and that, together with what seemed like an almost random introduction of milk quotas, caused a series of problems for dairy farmers.
If we want good quality produce, we have to pay an appropriate cost. The EU hasn't helped either. My neighbour had to dispose of his dairy herd a couple of years ago as it was costing him more to produce the milk than he was being paid for it by one of the "major players" who have - for the most part, got an inappropriate degree of control over things. It's no use going down the "efficiency" route cost-wise when things like animal welfare have to be taken into account. I don't imagine that many people who pour milk into their teacup realise just how it gets from the cow's udder to the supermarket shelf. In order to compete price-wise, dairy farmers have to use what I'd call extreme conditions in relation to their cattle. This can mean a completely automated milking system with little or no visual and actual contact with the animals concerned. It means that things like lameness and possible mastitis can often go undetected. The cattle are used as machines by machines, and that's something I for one don't like one little bit.
If we value quality produce, we have to pay for it.
The wholesale price of milk is a "world" price over which we have almost no control, if any. It is very sensible that more and more milk is diverted into the higher value added products.
We can all remember the days when the fields were full of black and white cows, and now we see nearly none. Some have gone indoors, but many have gone for good. That farmland is now used for other things, mostly agricultural. Those farmers and their farmland now produce something we actually demand. Change is inevitable, and those who adapt survive and thrive.It's vital we focus on what we are good at , for which there is a growing demand and for which there is a fair price for all, producers and consumers. Unfortunately milk doesn't pass 2 of this group of tests.
Milk is such a verstaile product which produces a wide variety of godies - milk, cream, clotted cream, sour cream, butter, buttermilk, ice cream and cheeses and so on. I try always to but organic milk, cream and cheeses or else regional products which aren't mass produced.
Our neighbours have a mixed arable and pastoral farm. When we arrived 21 years ago they had dairy cattle and sold milk, butter, yoghurt and fromage blanc but then the EU introduced rules about having separate, tiled rooms for each process and which would have cost a fortune to convert their perfectly adequate facilities.
They sold all the cows, bought a few more horses and opened a riding school and archery club and now earn most of their income from their 2 personal interests. Clearly not every farmer can diversify this way and it will take a great deal of organisation for farmers to band together and resist supermarket pressures to sell at below cost..
There is a movement slowly starting in the UK which is seeing customers change from supermarket shopping to smaller and more local shops and suppliers. Let's hope it gains momentum and good quality producers who care for their animals and land can start to get decent prices again
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
...I think this is the farming of the future.... but beware, some of it is horrific reading...at least, I suspect, to most of us...http://www.willowbrookorganic.org/node/25
I can remember when dairy cattle in this country weren't "black and white cows"! In farming terms they're a relatively new introduction (post WW2) when the dairy industry changed radically following the introduction of farm machinery and even - just think about it - the National Grid (!) - extending into rural areas. This was the biggest change for producers of milk since the building of the railways - which enabled farmers to send milk from the countryside into the towns, something which wasn't possible before that.
My father was a very successful dairy farmer - 3 farms - and a milk bottling plant. The introduction of those "black and white cows" came about because these breeds (Holstein/Friesian) produced milk in larger quantities than our traditional dairy breeds. The problem then arose that the milk quality they produced didn't satisy needs as far as milk quality was concerned. e.g. not much of a problem with "solids non-fat" but the fat content was low. As as interim measure, some farmers introduced Channel Island cattle into their herds, as the fat content in their milk is high, so the resulting mix of milk reached the required standard. It took many generations of selective breeding - and the keeping of incredibly complicated and detailed records ref each cow's lactation period - to arrive at today's milk quality standard.
People aren't aware these days ref the fat content of milk, because all the milk you buy in supermarkets etc has been homogenised. Who can remember milk in bottles? I can - and also the days when it was sold direct from the churn to the customer, from the back of horse-drawn milk-float.
The first dairy herd I 'managed' didn't have a single black/white animal amongst them. Didn't have a pedigree animal either apart from a Devon Red That was the late 1950s. 1960s I moved to a large modern dairy farm with 100 head of Ayrshires. By the time I stopped full time agricultural employment in 1989 I was milking 140-50 Friesians and now it's Holsteins and 100s of them. Interestingly though, many of those herds now have a few Guernsey/Jersey cows amongst them. I think one of the major influence on milk consumption was the increasingly hysterical 'fat consumption is bad' campaigns.
Posts
Another advantage of living in the country is that we have all the wildlife, birds bees, wasps, plus all the animals, fox, badger deer, snakes....
I love it when they are muck spreading.
If the price of milk falls any further this problem may not need a horticultural solution?
Yes Woody - such tragic short-sightedness
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
If you look at the figures there has been an inexorable and steep decline in the overall consumption of milk for a long time, so I am afraid this is inevitable until the supply is reduced. That is why the supermarkets have the whip hand. Basic economics, but not nice nonetheless.
There may be a decrease in consumption of milk "per se" in the UK, but over the past few decades there has been an increase in its use in other ways - e.g. in my childhood, yogurt was unheard of - yet now it's on many shopping lists!
The real problem arose with the demise of the Milk Marketing Board and that, together with what seemed like an almost random introduction of milk quotas, caused a series of problems for dairy farmers.
If we want good quality produce, we have to pay an appropriate cost. The EU hasn't helped either. My neighbour had to dispose of his dairy herd a couple of years ago as it was costing him more to produce the milk than he was being paid for it by one of the "major players" who have - for the most part, got an inappropriate degree of control over things. It's no use going down the "efficiency" route cost-wise when things like animal welfare have to be taken into account. I don't imagine that many people who pour milk into their teacup realise just how it gets from the cow's udder to the supermarket shelf. In order to compete price-wise, dairy farmers have to use what I'd call extreme conditions in relation to their cattle. This can mean a completely automated milking system with little or no visual and actual contact with the animals concerned. It means that things like lameness and possible mastitis can often go undetected. The cattle are used as machines by machines, and that's something I for one don't like one little bit.
If we value quality produce, we have to pay for it.
The wholesale price of milk is a "world" price over which we have almost no control, if any. It is very sensible that more and more milk is diverted into the higher value added products.
We can all remember the days when the fields were full of black and white cows, and now we see nearly none. Some have gone indoors, but many have gone for good. That farmland is now used for other things, mostly agricultural. Those farmers and their farmland now produce something we actually demand. Change is inevitable, and those who adapt survive and thrive.It's vital we focus on what we are good at , for which there is a growing demand and for which there is a fair price for all, producers and consumers. Unfortunately milk doesn't pass 2 of this group of tests.
Milk is such a verstaile product which produces a wide variety of godies - milk, cream, clotted cream, sour cream, butter, buttermilk, ice cream and cheeses and so on. I try always to but organic milk, cream and cheeses or else regional products which aren't mass produced.
Our neighbours have a mixed arable and pastoral farm. When we arrived 21 years ago they had dairy cattle and sold milk, butter, yoghurt and fromage blanc but then the EU introduced rules about having separate, tiled rooms for each process and which would have cost a fortune to convert their perfectly adequate facilities.
They sold all the cows, bought a few more horses and opened a riding school and archery club and now earn most of their income from their 2 personal interests. Clearly not every farmer can diversify this way and it will take a great deal of organisation for farmers to band together and resist supermarket pressures to sell at below cost..
There is a movement slowly starting in the UK which is seeing customers change from supermarket shopping to smaller and more local shops and suppliers. Let's hope it gains momentum and good quality producers who care for their animals and land can start to get decent prices again
...I think this is the farming of the future.... but beware, some of it is horrific reading...at least, I suspect, to most of us...http://www.willowbrookorganic.org/node/25
I can remember when dairy cattle in this country weren't "black and white cows"! In farming terms they're a relatively new introduction (post WW2) when the dairy industry changed radically following the introduction of farm machinery and even - just think about it - the National Grid (!) - extending into rural areas. This was the biggest change for producers of milk since the building of the railways - which enabled farmers to send milk from the countryside into the towns, something which wasn't possible before that.
My father was a very successful dairy farmer - 3 farms - and a milk bottling plant. The introduction of those "black and white cows" came about because these breeds (Holstein/Friesian) produced milk in larger quantities than our traditional dairy breeds. The problem then arose that the milk quality they produced didn't satisy needs as far as milk quality was concerned. e.g. not much of a problem with "solids non-fat" but the fat content was low. As as interim measure, some farmers introduced Channel Island cattle into their herds, as the fat content in their milk is high, so the resulting mix of milk reached the required standard. It took many generations of selective breeding - and the keeping of incredibly complicated and detailed records ref each cow's lactation period - to arrive at today's milk quality standard.
People aren't aware these days ref the fat content of milk, because all the milk you buy in supermarkets etc has been homogenised. Who can remember milk in bottles? I can - and also the days when it was sold direct from the churn to the customer, from the back of horse-drawn milk-float.
The first dairy herd I 'managed' didn't have a single black/white animal amongst them. Didn't have a pedigree animal either apart from a Devon Red That was the late 1950s. 1960s I moved to a large modern dairy farm with 100 head of Ayrshires. By the time I stopped full time agricultural employment in 1989 I was milking 140-50 Friesians and now it's Holsteins and 100s of them. Interestingly though, many of those herds now have a few Guernsey/Jersey cows amongst them. I think one of the major influence on milk consumption was the increasingly hysterical 'fat consumption is bad' campaigns.