Will anybody sign the petition to bring back the Milk Boards

[lazy farmer]

Used to be the way a young man could get going with a herd of cows and make his way in the world, not nowerdays, completely shut up shop.

I think your issue is area specific.

 

[fgc325j]

Petition: Reintroduce the Milk Marketing Board

The Milk Marketing Board (MMB) up until 1994 controlled the production and distribution of Milk. Since its abolition Dairy Farmers have been subjected to one sided contracts in favour of the processors & packers. The re-establishment of the MMB will help create a fair trade market place.

petition.parliament.uk

Just asking with all the talk about contracts just now, I dont think they will make the market fair or even for all producers.

Is this the answer ?

The MMB were on top of the game of distribution, the only people on top of that game these days are .........
the supermarkets. It what gives them the "edge" over processors, and you will have a problem getting people
with the necessary expertise and knowledge to start a distribution business from scratch. It will involve front-loading
a fledgling business with costs, which the dairy farmers will be expected to to dig deep to pay for it. I cannot see the
Government wanting to find the money.
When the price of cattle on the hook fell last autumn to just above £3, the Govt'
response was that "this was all part of the natural business cycle, and we don't interfere in the business cycle". No, i
cannot see the Government falling over themselves to start a new MMB.
What they could do is to revoke the ruling, which
Labour bought in, when they split up Milk Marque, which stated that no organisation could have more than 40% of the
milk supply under it's control. That could be a start.

 

[Will Blackburn]

Fair enough but I bet you've been aligned for a good 10 years or more. I'm not saying that it's your fault, it would be ridiculous if I suggested it was, but you have to feel some sympathy towards those new entrants who are trying to make their way in the world and have become beholden to a rubbish milk price, completely through no fault of their own, whereas those established privileged businesses that are aligned are romping away and laughing all the way to the bank.

I think it’s healthy for the market that a new entrant has too consider where they may sit with a potential purchaser before they proceed. We are still seeing the unwinding of the MMB effect with regard to dairy farm location. I used to be in the spud game, when 20% of your gross output is haulage ex-farm it focuses your mind on the way forward.
I don’t see aligned as the golden goose, it’s a premium contract based on factory proximity.

 

[Will Blackburn]

The MMB were on top of the game of distribution,

Labour bought in, when they split up Milk Marque, which stated that no organisation could have more than 40% of the
milk supply under it's control. That could be a start.

This finished the job coop wise, completely ridiculous in the circumstances of being a part of the EU.

 

[westwards]

I don’t see aligned as the golden goose, it’s a premium contract based on factory proximity.

Try telling that to the Tesco producers in Aberdeenshire.

 

[betweenthelines]

The MMB were on top of the game of distribution, the only people on top of that game these days are .........
the supermarkets. It what gives them the "edge" over processors, and you will have a problem getting people
with the necessary expertise and knowledge to start a distribution business from scratch. It will involve front-loading
a fledgling business with costs, which the dairy farmers will be expected to to dig deep to pay for it. I cannot see the
Government wanting to find the money.
When the price of cattle on the hook fell last autumn to just above £3, the Govt'
response was that "this was all part of the natural business cycle, and we don't interfere in the business cycle". No, i
cannot see the Government falling over themselves to start a new MMB.
What they could do is to revoke the ruling, which
Labour bought in, when they split up Milk Marque, which stated that no organisation could have more than 40% of the
milk supply under it's control. That could be a start.

Sorry but you are 100% wrong about collections/distribution. Some processors do their own collections, but most utilise a few specialist hauliers (Gregory, Wincanton etc) to manage it for them. Delivery to store is more likely to be controlled by the processor, but even then, in house operations may actually be managed by a specialist haulage company -all Coop and Morrisons "in house" haulage is managed by DHL for example. Supermarket run distribution is notoriously poor with two or more of their own artics often arriving at the same store within a short space of time.

For ex-farm collections it would be relatively easy to revert to the model used by the MMB, who also mainly used local hauliers and were very active ensuring collection routes were cost effective (part of my grandparent's business was as a MMB contracted haulier)

As for the above quoted rule about a limit on market share, previous MMC actions have shown that 2 or 3 enterprises have combined before to manipulate the market in Dairy goods. I would also suspect that either Arla or Muller/DC must by now be at or near that 40% mark on liquid milk sales.

Oddly enough MMC seemed to think that the Muller/DC merger was "good for the shopper"? but I don't think anyone has seen any evidence of this.

 

[Farmer1001]

Aspirations of bringing MMB back are misplaced, "nice" idea but wont happen. British dairy farmers sign one sided contracts that leave the buyers in a position to pass risk down the line without the need to invest in innovation, brands and marketing, as such British milk is now a commodity and not a product. Generic promotion of British dairy is a must and for the driven brand makers to then fight for the share of the market and provide the choices the consumers then choose from. But that wont happen either as the industry cant agree on anything despite the need. The future is survival of the fittest or those prepared to lose the most before chucking in the towel, thats the world in which we operate and thats the choice we have, sounds harsh but thats exactly what happens now and few want it to change. BTW its so good to see First Milk still in the frame and the vultures having to back off.

 

[Courier]

"Will anybody sign the petition to bring back the Milk Boards"

Nice sentiment, just 27 years too late .....

 

[Will Blackburn]

Try telling that to the Tesco producers in Aberdeenshire.

So were they not near the factory, I don’t know their story?

 

[betweenthelines]

MMB used to operate a Regional price policy based on which County you were in.

Translate this to now and I'm sure that farmers in Devon & Cornwall wouldn't mind a slightly lower pool price to reflect the cost of moving milk upcountry, in return for a guaranteed market

As it is buyers seem to decide amongst themselves which one will buy in which areas -but that would be against the rules, wouldn't it?

 

[Alex72]

So were they not near the factory, I don’t know their story?

Very close to the factory, until Muller decided to close it

 

[jackrussell101]

I think your issue is area specific.

No it's not, alot of milk can be produced in quite a small area, every non-aligned dairy farmer in the UK will start to feel the effects of an oversupply of milk coming from the aligned pools, in fact it's already happening...

 

[lazy farmer]

No it's not, alot of milk can be produced in quite a small area, every non-aligned dairy farmer in the UK will start to feel the effects of an oversupply of milk coming from the aligned pools, in fact it's already happening...

No but other areas may have a greater choice of processors. Unless they have refused to recognise the move to More solids based contracts. Then they are buggered.

 

[bar718]

How many dairy farmers are there in the uk. Get all of them to sign the petition, oh and I mean all of them and you won’t even get to the point of getting a response from the government over this petition. Oh and I won’t be signing it either.

 

[westwards]

@bar718 No I would not expect anyone with an Arla or aligned contract to sign up to it , and like you I don't think if they got 100,000 to sign it would happen.

But the British market is fecked for over 50% of suppliers, and if the NFU think they are going to solve it without doing something about aligned contracts and retailer dominance
we are still going to be in a mess years from now.

 

[neilo]

Too many greedy b*stards who would go to whoever paid them .1 ppl more killed the milk market. Divide and rule by the processors.

Now, so many sellers seem too scared to kick up a fuss.

It was 3ppl, or £60k a year to us at the time. We were also fed up of keeping the ‘hangers on’ employed by the bloated MMB, and of subsidising the milk price of the 30 cow herd milked in a sh*t hole down the road.

 

[buffalo_soldier]

Should have set this topic up as a poll, would be interesting to see the %age split.

 

[lazy farmer]

@bar718 No I would not expect anyone with an Arla or aligned contract to sign up to it , and like you I don't think if they got 100,000 to sign it would happen.

But the British market is fecked for over 50% of suppliers, and if the NFU think they are going to solve it without doing something about aligned contracts and retailer dominance
we are still going to be in a mess years from now.

Please give evidence of over 50% of suppliers being fecked ?
Or at least your definition of being fecked.

 

[westwards]

Please give evidence of over 50% of suppliers being fecked ?
Or at least your definition of being fecked.

Being fecked is when you are with a milk buyer who is paying you less than it costs you to produce it and they know it, and when the same buyer with retailer contracts pay some of the suppliers enough to cover their costs and a little bit for profit. Its the have's and the have not's............ simples !!

 

[lazy farmer]

So over half the industry is loss making ?