Think laterally to beat milk price volatility

First Milk has announced it will be cutting the price for both its liquid and manufacturing pools by 3 pence per litre (ppl) while Dairy Crest is reducing the price it pays to farmers by 1.75ppl from 1 October.

More than 250 farmers in Yorkshire provide milk to the farmer-owned Arla Foods amba co-operative and at the start of the month, it cut its standard UK price by 1.2ppl, taking it to 30.38ppl.

Douglas Chalmers, regional director of policy and public affairs at the CLA, said: “A small diversification project, supplying new markets or looking at alternative uses for parts of their land are examples of solutions that farmers might want to consider to soften the blow of fluctuating milk prices.”