News

U.K. dairy co-op to delay farmer payment

Yet another indicator of how desperate the dairy situation is in the U.K. Scotland-based First Milk cooperative says a farm milk payment due on January 12th will not be made until January 26th.  All future payments will also be delayed by two weeks.  The co-op says the action is needed due to cash flow problems created by the rapid decline in milk prices.

First Milk has reduced the recently-announced price cut scheduled for February 1st by 1.1 pence per liter (ppl), the new reductions will be 1.33 ppl for manufacturing milk and 0.5 ppl for fluid. Farmers will also get an increase in capital investment from 0.5 to 2 pence per litre for milk supplied from December 2014 up to August 2015 and increased members capital investment target from 5 to 7 pence per litre

The processor says it realizes this is going to put a severe financial strain on their dairy producers and they are working with all major banks at the national, regional and local levels to explain the rationale around this decision. “That way, bank managers should be well equipped for any conversations they have with First Milk members.”

First Milk has seven dairy plants across the U.K.

Read more from the co-op here: