First Milk members urged to check out business plans
First Milk members have been urged to reconsider their business plans to survive the milk price slump by John Owen, Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers Council member and farm manager at Gelli Aur College, Carmarthen which carries a 500 cow split calving herd supplying First Milk. “We First Milk members, together with the rest […]
Falling prices and horsegate legacy is boost for British pork industry
Brent Crude isn’t the only commodity that’s falling in price. Pork has dropped 20p since summer, and it’s still falling, say’s NPA. ‘You wouldn’t expect us to welcome the steady decline in pig producer prices over the past few months — but we do applaud the fact that these price drops are helping retailers and […]
Testing for Bovine Tuberculosis (TB) is more effective than badger culls at controlling the disease
Modelling produced by researchers at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) has found that the only effective potential Bovine Tuberculosis (TB) control strategies are badger culling, cattle testing, controlling cattle movement, and ceasing the practice of housing farm cattle together during winter. The modelling found that in a region containing about 1.5m cows of which […]
RABDF calls for First Milk honesty
The Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers has called for honesty among First Milk officials following its announcement to defer this week’s fortnightly payment to members and to make changes to their capital contributions. “We urge First Milk board to be honest and up front with its communications with members, many of whom have been […]
Record growth for Rugby Farmers Mart
The Rugby Farmers Mart (RFM) was founded in 2006 to replace the livestock market in Rugby, and started trading two years later at Stoneleigh Park. It is now attracting sellers and buyers from across the country and recorded record sales in 2014. Tom Wrench, head auctioneer at RFM, said it has been a tough year […]
Arla Foods amba’s January 2015 milk price
The Arla on-account price will reduce by 2.5 eurocents per kg, with effect from 5 January 2015. The combined impact of the on-account price and 13th payment changes takes the quoted UK standard litre to 24.81ppl, a total decrease of 2.03ppl. Commenting on the reduction, Ash Amirahmadi. Arla’s UK head of milk and member services, […]
UK wholesale milk production to the end of November 2014
The United Kingdom wholesale milk deliveries totaled 1,117.4 million litres in November, the eighth month of the new milk year, figures released by the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) show. At the same time last year this figure was 1,066.9 million litres. The cumulative total for the year is now 9,677.5 million litres. At the same […]
New guidelines to harmonize studies on heat resistance of bacteria
Using a common methodology to measure heat resistance of bacteria is crucial, so that the results of different studies can be compared. The International Dairy Federation (IDF) has produced a set of guidelines and considerations in the International Journal of Food Microbiology* that will serve as a valuable resource for researchers studying heat resistance. […]
NFU disappointed with latest milk price cut announcements
The chairman of the NFU dairy board has expressed disappointment following the latest round of milk price cuts. Dairy Crest and First Milk have today announced further price drops from January 2015. NFU dairy board chairman Rob Harrison said: “Although the fundamentals of the global supply and demand situation haven’t changed this latest price slash […]
