Milk Price Tracker

[Tonka]

How secure is any contract within the dairy industry? - I mean between your processor and supermarket/wholesaler/further processor/whatever.
Not very......hence the need to be cautious and take minimal risk. Very tricky with such a perishable product and zilch shelf life.

 

[farmer on a bike]

But my point is we wouldn't want to climb back in when the market turns , yes it might mean we don't get the highs of the market but if we hadn't been taken down to the depths of the sub 20's I don't think the membership would care , the only reason they all shouted so much about not getting the highs in the back end was because we went so low , had the price only dropped to say 24p I don't think many would be moaning at only getting to 27p . Look at rover cars , for years they had land rover and loads of rover cars and didn't get very far , then they dropped the rover cars and focused on the profitable side of the business land rover and now there is no stopping them , I'm not saying we can stop all these poor contracts straight away , just we maybe shouldn't be going out recruiting new supplies just to build rover cars just for the sake of scale .
Ultimately , a cliche I know , but we can't keep doing what we did yesterday and pray for different results , and unless we get a significantly higher proportion of our milk into own brand or stop cross subsidizing marginal litres with our brands we will just end up in the same boat during the next trough , and some of our fellow farmers will not make it through and those that do will be badly hurt and thus we will be short of milk and go out and recruit it or buy it off spot , either way it's our members money being given away to non members of today .
It is great to see vision 2020 has conceded this point slightly in that when first launched ,while proposing growth of our brands it was only in line with the growth of it's milk intake and thus no progress on a per litre basis , now it does include growing value as well as volume but crucially the percentage of our milk in brand will now grow slightly , however this is not through the choice of Arla but rather the fact due to price impact it simply won't get the volume of milk it expected from it badly wounded members .
Sure recruit where we need it for our brands or to balance our brands but why don't we start slowly moving away from these contracts that while profitable some years are quite happy to rip the heart out of Arla members in other years

The problem is often you are talking about the same customers, we want to sell brands too. Whilst I agree that what happened recently is not the way we should continue, the answer is not just to withdraw but to develop a better relationship. We have managed that with many of our UK customers, so why not else ware.

As a rather pointless aside, the government sold Rover to BMW and Landrover/Jag to Ford. BMW couldn't make Rover work so it became a management buy out and some very dodgy stuff occurred before it went bust and the remains flogged to China. Ford couldn't make it work that well/needed the money and sold to Tata who have made a roaring success of it. Maybe the thing to learn is that if you do things better you can make it work just like Tata have with the same type of products and customers?

 

[Chips]

The problem is often you are talking about the same customers, we want to sell brands too. Whilst I agree that what happened recently is not the way we should continue, the answer is not just to withdraw but to develop a better relationship. We have managed that with many of our UK customers, so why not else ware.

As a rather pointless aside, the government sold Rover to BMW and Landrover/Jag to Ford. BMW couldn't make Rover work so it became a management buy out and some very dodgy stuff occurred before it went bust and the remains flogged to China. Ford couldn't make it work that well/needed the money and sold to Tata who have made a roaring success of it. Maybe the thing to learn is that if you do things better you can make it work just like Tata have with the same type of products and customers?

Okay , poor analogy .
Good article here from the boss backing up what you say about it starting to work in the UK
http://www.thegrocer.co.uk/buying-a...pportunity-for-uk-dairy-sector/549742.article

I think we can all agree the more brands the better and less generic own label the better

 

[bar718]

Okay , poor analogy .
Good article here from the boss backing up what you say about it starting to work in the UK
http://www.thegrocer.co.uk/buying-a...pportunity-for-uk-dairy-sector/549742.article

I think we can all agree the more brands the better and less generic own label the better

That's all well and good but what about where the generic own label milk now carries the arla marque . This milk all started as normal generic milk but as the relationship between arla and these customers has grown and matured the customers are now proud to tell there customers that the milk is produced for them by arla , so to dismiss all the generic own label milk may eventually shoot your self in the foot . I also agree with you that some of the own label milk will always be supplied by the lowest bidder so this says that we have to be careful putting all the own label generic milk in one category and dismissing it all .

 

[peclova]

tis a tad complicated being an arla member.........................

Did you mot know? As from 31st December 2017 any new members will have to have to pass an applied mathematics test before they are excepted.

 

[endeavour]

Much as I concur with some of the constructive criticism by Arla members it should emphasise to all producers the difficulty of determining "Market Price for milk just consider the following factors.
What is world production level ---what can affect this weather, political intervention etc.
""""""""UK production and is there processing capacity and is the milk close to this capacity.
Can you encourage buyers to enter into longer term contracts, many will not for fear of being over bought on a falling trade, the buyers in general are unable to predict supply or future price for product.
Major brokers such as MF ,CMP do not worry unduly about supply they will always take a margin
a known % or price per litre regardless, but most importantly they do not buy unless they have a customer!
Most of all the power of the supermarket buyers to control both liquid and product price will always have a considerable influence. I am aware that there are numerous other factors involved but consider the complex factors facing many marketing men working for Arla , FM ,etc ,when complaining.

 

[peclova]

Various issues, to me the main issue is the seasonality of our supply. This Autumn we could be more short of milk than we were in 2016, and it demand for our products is increasing. Arla as a whole had about 20% in trading milk, Peter Tuborgh at BoR told us that much below that and we may not be able to balance effectively and supply all the higher value products when we have the demand. In reality we were told it was less than 20% in the second half of the year, hence the need for extra milk in a few specific places.

I think the shortage for this autumn was foreseeable last year when the seasonality penalties were increased on the spring/early summer months. If the bonus months had been increased at the same time, then much of this shortage may have been averted.

 

[Penmoel]

Did you mot know? As from 31st December 2017 any new members will have to have to pass an applied mathematics test before they are excepted.

A test in grammar and spelling would help too

excepted or accepted

 

[Blue.]

Feb milk paid 28.75 for A litres and 25.5 for B (4.25bf 3.3p band A)

March B look like being 24.49

 

[Only]

Feb milk paid 28.75 for A litres and 25.5 for B (4.25bf 3.3p band A)

March B look like being 24.49

With who?

 

[Chips]

That's all well and good but what about where the generic own label milk now carries the arla marque . This milk all started as normal generic milk but as the relationship between arla and these customers has grown and matured the customers are now proud to tell there customers that the milk is produced for them by arla , so to dismiss all the generic own label milk may eventually shoot your self in the foot . I also agree with you that some of the own label milk will always be supplied by the lowest bidder so this says that we have to be careful putting all the own label generic milk in one category and dismissing it all .

Where it carries the Arla marque it isn't really generic own label , and I totaly agree we shouldn't walk away from any that isn't carrying our marque yet but try to persuade them to take the marque , it's this milk that you describe as will always go to lowest bidder that I question (it is only question , not criticism, as I know no where near enough to do otherwise) and that while this milk still exists on our books should we be recruiting more milk .
Leave that milk to our rivals , the mere fact there is one less company tendering for it could help the milk price in it's self .

 

[Blue.]

With who?

My milk buyer

 

[bar718]

Where it carries the Arla marque it isn't really generic own label , and I totaly agree we shouldn't walk away from any that isn't carrying our marque yet but try to persuade them to take the marque , it's this milk that you describe as will always go to lowest bidder that I question (it is only question , not criticism, as I know no where near enough to do otherwise) and that while this milk still exists on our books should we be recruiting more milk .
Leave that milk to our rivals , the mere fact there is one less company tendering for it could help the milk price in it's self .

You don't have to go that far back to see what you are saying is slowly happening with a supply contract being walked away from .

 

[Only]

My milk buyer

fair enough

 

[Cows 'n grass]

Where it carries the Arla marque it isn't really generic own label , and I totaly agree we shouldn't walk away from any that isn't carrying our marque yet but try to persuade them to take the marque , it's this milk that you describe as will always go to lowest bidder that I question (it is only question , not criticism, as I know no where near enough to do otherwise) and that while this milk still exists on our books should we be recruiting more milk .
Leave that milk to our rivals , the mere fact there is one less company tendering for it could help the milk price in it's self .

Good to see all Asda own label cheddar and fresh milk is now carrying the 'farmer owned' mark.

 

[Crusty]

Arla member
4.21fat
3.41pro
Top bands, EODC
27.36

 

[pappuller]

Creamline dairies
4.05 fat
3.05 pro
scc101
bac 11
27.78ppl

 

[Cowmangav]

Gallagher has gone?

 

[llamedos]

Gallagher has gone?

Yes, just about to share Press release.

 

[Cowmangav]

I was scraping down cubicle beds at around Xmas time, when the thought occurred to me " well he'll use this track record of recovery , and grab another posting". Hasn't taken long.