Müller Direct farmers who commit to initiatives designed to continually improve herd health and welfare standards, are to be offered an additional payment worth 0.5 pence per litre.

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The Müller Direct Premium 2019 will be introduced on January 1^st, 2019, with payment based on involvement by farmers in three herd health initiatives. They are:

The Müller Direct Farm Insight Programme, an on-farm health and welfare assessment which aims to provide bespoke advice, benchmarking and highlight potential savings, managed by AB Sustain

The Müller Direct Antibiotic Programme, which is designed to manage and reduce unnecessary use of antibiotics

The National Johne’s Management Plan, which aims to control and eradicate Johne’s, a chronic disease which affects cattle

The Müller Direct Premium 2019 would be worth £10,000 to a 2 million litre per annum producer and will be paid in a lump sum in January 2020 to Müller Direct farmers who qualify.

Rob Hutchison, Milk Supply Director said:

“The Müller Direct Premium 2019 initiative is another means to help our Müller Direct dairy farmers build better, more sustainable businesses, securing long term success and benefitting the dairy supply chain as a whole.

“We know that Müller Direct farmers are deeply committed to the health of their herds. Many have already taken important steps to address the unnecessary use of antibiotics, manage Johne’s and look for ways to improve overall health and welfare.

“We are confident that the benefits of participating, in terms of potential improvements in herd health and welfare coupled with the value of benchmarking and sharing best practice, will be significant.

“For Müller the aggregated, anonymised data from the herd health initiatives will provide evidence of improved herd health and welfare in our direct farm pool which we will be able to share with our customers who have no direct relationship with farmers.”

The Premium is the latest in a series of moves by Müller which are designed to increase farmers resilience, confidence and ability to weather increasingly volatile global dairy markets.

Other measures include the introduction of a fixed price contract option and opportunities for farmers to access dairy futures markets.

Each of these is optional and underpinned by detailed information, where possible provided independently, giving farmers the means to determine the right course of action for their businesses.

Müller will be discussing the Müller Direct Premium 2019 and the details of the three herd health initiatives at a series of meetings for Müller Direct supplying farmers over the next few weeks.