Don't really remember mmb much but I think in our house it was thought to be past its best. Plenty of times in its past farmers were unhappy with the prices paid. I have some old farmers weekly and farmer &stock breeder from the 50/60/70s and articles are much the same as now with regards price of milk.
From what dads said yea not perfect but atleast everyone got the same, and there was someone to stand up against supermarkets. And advertise the products. The removal of quota was the perfect storm for sh!t milk price. Pay a good price to begin with, then when everyone whacks up production big companies can cut the price and the small ones have to follow to remain competitive. Then when people go out raise it a bit and the whole things goes round in circles!
We’ve had a contract with our company for 10 years and in the last few years people on the non aligned ingredients contracts have been considerable better than us. Meadow have treat their farmers in Cumbria like sh!t, got rid of a lot of smaller producers and lost a milk contract so instead of reducing everyone they knocked 2p off the Cumbrian ones only. A lot of them that they got rid of have come on ours now.
How do you get on with mastitis? With the straw yards.thats nice cubicles . we loose house our lot and scrape the whole lot out dailywe use a fair bit of straw and seem to have big dung heaps
If the MMB was still in operation today,the milk price would be 40p + ,easily! How many people do you notice at the supermarkets checking the price? Its just picked up and put in the Basket/trolley.
1995 was 25p according to dad, still on that today! Even if it was 30 we’d be on a good thing
The problem with milk and I did milk cows for a number of years is not the liquid price it's the butter cheese etc which always dragged the overall price down especially in the old mmb days and they never had the guts to tell the processors pay up or bugger off
It’s the other way round now, better than what is there now coops like arla are basically a new version and look how well they are doing.
Dale farm ceo said liquid milk was their poorest return a few years ago and no surprise with 4 litres for next to bugger all in the shops
Im sorry that you are caught badly with a poor milk contract Lady muck , the farmer owned co- ops over here make all the difference . One milk price for all . The IFA all credit to them hold board members feet to the fire and the Milk price league in the Farmers journal ensures transparency . Without farmer control of milk proscessing we would end up like the Beef industry . Cant see ol Larry been a great payer somehow
For Feb milk i recieved 39 cent + 1cent special bonus +5 cent winter bonus . 45 cent litre gross. All milk is paid for on solids and Feb average was 4.9 fat and 3.7 pr . Maize silage is great for putting solids in the tank and i wouldnt be without it for winter milk .Not to bad as i said we scrape the whole lot out daily and in the front where the cows eat and poo the most in the afternoon too , we were not using the feed barriers at first and used to feed in a yard but awkward tanker times made us change tack . we do chuck down some cubicle lime to keep the bugs at bay /last nmr test was 157 cc bacto 13 bf 4.66
Ok thankyou and well done.
Dont be fooled by the current beef and sheep prices, they wont stay where they are now, my lambs are heading north of 30kg average now with my biggest weighing 41kg, I can guarantee the week they're ready and hit 45kg that price will be through the floor!there's no real pressure for s/mkts to up their price, until they do, we will suffer silly prices.
I started in 1996, on my own, milk 25p, 3 years later, after a bad accident, cows had to go, 14ppl, couldn't afford a cowman, and couldn't milk them on my own. Barreners, went to £300 from £750, went in just before BSE, shite timing.
But stayed farming, and when he was old enough, son wanted, we/he went back in. The biggest shock, was how costs had jumped up. However, for smaller farms, milk produces the best 'return'. After the cows went, let a bit for potatoes, grass keep and maize, 400 ewes, good lambs would av £60 or less, calves were cheap though, usually had 70/80 on the bucket all the time, sucklers didn't make much, fast forward to today, lambs and store cattle, somewhere north of the sun, calves are heading that way, but milk still 30ppl, better than 14 though. We have nearly 80 calves on the bucket at the moment, all our spring block, so far, chap came in today, will take every calf we don't want - bull calves, even the 4 jersey bull calves, we don't like shooting them, how the hell we price them,
that's just farming for you, we had a hfr prolapse yesterday, should have been a jersey, but massive fr bull, the whole lot followed the calf out, vet said they had never been so busy dealing with sheep, getting called out for prolapses, twin lamb, caesareans and hard lambings, i wonder why !
relief milkers can be a serious problem, it has to be admitted, we can't find a good one. But small herds can be both easy to manage, and not a lot of work, you have the advantage of starting simple, and staying simple, main stream dairy, has managed to complicate things, to such an extent, it becomes a treadmill, and very difficult to get off that wheel.