Northern Ireland Milk Price Tracker

any one filled out the form yet, bit double dutch, question 1a milk i produced oct15 to dec 31 15. 1b milk i will cut back, 1c my presumed new milk deliveries for oct nov and dec 16. 1c-1b= 1a, am i correct???????????
 

The Agrarian

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Northern Ireland
Well I as an individual am quite happy to criticise the scheme. I too believe it's far too late. This began two years ago when we dropped through 30p in June. I don't know about the rest of you, but seeing where it was going, I did my hard culling that summer and autumn of 14. So my production bottomed out long time ago. I don't have anything left to cut. Those of us who actually did this could justifiably feel penalised for being on the ball. It's just taken the EU two years to catch up with us.:mad:.

It may be slightly useful to those countries with no export markets, whose contract prices have a big lag behind our more commodity style market. Even so, it's a flippin year too late for them too.:rolleyes:

Still, if you haven't culled yet, I agree, there's still time.(y)
 

Happy at it

Member
Location
NI
Post just in. United winter bonus of 2p for 3months. Also a production incentive scheme for 3 months Oct to Dec with an additional 4p for supplies above the same period last year.
 

Shep

Member
Well at least they are putting their money where their mouth is. 4p over for extra litres will be a big incentive. If others follow suit will it bring us back into oversupply again?
After all processors would rather have plenty of cheap milk than a scarcity of dear milk.
I think they see a big deficit on the horizon and are boxing clever.
 

Shep

Member
Spot milk is 30ppl+. So is 4ppl extra for extra supply enough?
Well if we assume a Base of 20p plus 2p bonus plus 4p of extra that makes it 26p, not enough but getting there, they could adjust Base to suit themselves if they wanted to pay closer to 30p.
What puzzles me a bit is that we were at a near record high for volume last winter and with most on wind down this winter, then very few will be In a position to up supply for this 4p, are there not less cows about this year?
 
Well at least they are putting their money where their mouth is. 4p over for extra litres will be a big incentive. If others follow suit will it bring us back into oversupply again?
After all processors would rather have plenty of cheap milk than a scarcity of dear milk.
I think they see a big deficit on the horizon and are boxing clever.
They're not really putting their money where their mouth is though, are they. I mean it's a nice catchy headline but do the sums on it and it'll be worth diddly squat. They post an example of someone supplying 100,000 litres in oct'15 and now supplying them 105,000 in oct'16. This entitled the farmer to 10,000 litres at the extra 4ppl. At base of 20ppl, winter bonus of 2ppl and the aforementioned £400 this brings the actual milk price for October supplies to approx 22.4ppl. Personally, it suits our current farm set up better to go for the 12ppl
 
And if that's your situation, they acknowledged that in the letter and advised you to apply for the EU scheme, with a page full of details on it too! Seems quite fair minded...
I think you've misunderstood the point of my post. Our own situation was only an aside at the end. It's called a production incentive scheme, the 'incentive' being a whopping 0.4ppl or so. Now maybe that would spur you to produce more of the White gold, but given the preceding 18 months and stale nature of a lot of herds I can't see it being that popular. It just strikes me as being an ill thought out, desperate measure or else some cheap positive publicity, and that's coming from someone who is generally very supportive of United's strategy
 

The Agrarian

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Northern Ireland
For some herds which are spring calving, it will suit better to dry off early than to try to turn on the tap. For summer and autumn calvers, it is not practical to reduce volume for the sake of an EU scheme, unless to sell fresh animals. This might appeal to some for short term cash flow reasons, others not. Equally, it's not terribly easy to increase production at very short notice without actually going out and buying extra stock, which wouldn't be something that would appeal to many people. Let's be fair - a ten percent reduction in your output through the EU scheme is not going to set your bank account on fire either.

Basically, our production pattern for today was formed quite some time ago. It's something that takes a bit of time to respond to, which is evident from the fact that we are really just seeing production respond two years into the downturn. My conclusion is that while both schemes are equally well intentioned, they do not allow enough time for us to develop an adequate response. And so, it follows that one scheme may suit some businesses at this stage, while the other may suit others. And for the rest, neither may be deemed particularly relevant or workable. It's just pot luck where you happen to find yourself in relation to these things.
 

Happy at it

Member
Location
NI
No doubt it is well intentioned on Uniteds behalf. But a bit of a gimmick all the same. Last year it was the introduction of a volume bonus rewarding the larger producers, at a time where they were openly saying there was too much milk around......
 

Happy at it

Member
Location
NI
Sorry, introduction of higher bonus amounts? Nevertheless, gimmick or not, i hope it signals a change, and that next year will see a stronger base... In the mean time reduction scheme for me.
 

The Agrarian

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Northern Ireland
Thursday, 15 September, 2016
Ulster Farmers’ Union dairy chairman, William Irvine, has welcomed a commitment from United Dairy Farmers to pay suppliers a significant winter milk production bonus. He said that since United was the biggest buyer of milk here it was encouraging that farmers were set to gain from a policy that reflected what was happening on dairy markets.
“It seems ironic that as the EU’s Voluntary Milk Production Reduction Scheme is being implemented, United finds itself in the position of needing more milk to satisfy the business it has through its Dale Farm brand. This is encouraging news for producers – and I hope other processors will follow United's lead to allow farmers to benefit from what is happening on national and global dairy markets,” said Mr Irvine.
The UFU, who has just recently completed a series of meetings with local dairy processors encouraging them to pass the recent commodity price gains on to producers, says the United bonus will come as a welcome cash flow boost for farmers at a time of the year when costs begin to climb. Mr Irvine said he was hopeful the winter would bring the combination of a higher milk price and manageable costs. He stressed however that this would not cure the problem the industry has faced for the past couple of years.
“It is encouraging to see developments like this. Price improvements will boost farmers' confidence, but there is a long way to go before the industry is back on an even keel. Part of this is clearing the huge debts that have built up operating below the cost of production for such a long time. However, farmers are positive by nature, and they will see this move by United as a big step in the right direction,” said Mr Irvine.
The dairy committee chairman added that while some farmers might gain from the EU scheme to cut milk production, this latest development underlines why the UFU was never convinced that the answer to low prices globally was to reduce production here. “The indications are that markets are recovering and that is why United is offering a bonus, and farmers want to be in a strong position to meet market demand,” said William Irvine.
Dale Farm has offered the following to its members:

  1. Dale Farm Winter Premium: Dale Farm will be paying a Dale Farm Winter Premium of +2.00ppl above the base price on all milk supplied by its members in the months of October, November and December 2016. This has been extended from two months last year to three months this year.
  2. Dale Farm Milk Production Incentive Scheme: In addition, to further encourage the production of milk to satisfy its growing customer contracts, Dale Farms Board has decided to introduce a Dale Farm Milk Production Incentive Scheme available to all its members, again for the months of October, November and December 2016. Currently milk supply in N. Ireland is running around 6per cent behind last year and milk supplied by its members, year to date, is down 4.3per cent. Dale Farm has used this 4.3per cent drop to set a new base for each member against which Dale Farm will pay the incentive. The Dale Farm Milk Production Incentive will pay +4.00ppl on all additional litres each member produces above their base volume for October, November and December 2016. Note; this incentive is on top of the +2.00ppl Winter Premium on all litres.
 

Ballygreenan

Member
Location
Tyrone NI
the ufu and united are in bed together, wouldnt of expected any critism there. the almighty united can do no wrong,everyones looking at the big carrot and forgetting milk was 18p last month always jam later, reduction only way forward
As thus it ever was with United. I'm still waiting on the bogeyman coming to visit after we left to go to Lakeland. Maybe he's busy trying to play catch-up?!
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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