First Milk has today announced that its milk price for December 2018 will be held at 28.5ppl for the liquid standard litre (4% butterfat, 3.3% protein). This equates to 29.47ppl on a manufacturing standard litre (4.2% butterfat and 3.4% protein) price.image expired

“The dairy commodity markets have weakened significantly in recent weeks and this puts pressure on milk prices. Of course, we are not immune from this, but our underlying business performance remains in line with our plans, which has allowed us to hold prices for December, and we aim to provide as much milk price stability to our members as we can moving forward.

“Looking into 2019, we have a clear growth strategy and we are confident that together, we can deliver dairy prosperity.”

NFU Scotland's Milk Committee Chairman John Smith, a dairy farmer from Kintyre and a First Milk member said: "This news of a milk price hold, given other negative milk price announcements, will be a great relief to First Milk producers as dairy farmers enter a very costly winter period.

"Winter feed for dairy cows is now up to £260 per tonne. For most producers, that means that the price they are receiving for a litre of milk is almost the same as the price they are having to pay for a kilo of feeding. A milk price to feed ratio of 1:1 is a clear indicator of how hard it will be to make any kind of margin from milk this winter.

"A growth strategy that appears to be delivering indicates that First Milk will need supplies going forward which is reassuring for its members. Credit must go to Shelagh Hancock, its chief executive, and her team for delivering a much more competitive milk price - a just reward for members who remained loyal to the co-op through very tough trading conditions over the past few years."

Meadow Foods has already announced a 1ppl price drop from December 1, taking its standard A litre milk price to 28.5ppl & Dairy Crest has introduced a milk price floor to this combined price of 30.9ppl through to the end of January 2019.