September 21, 2009
British farmgate milk price up in July
UK farmgate milk prices increased to 22.99 pence (p)/litre in July, a rise from 0.49p/litre but almost 11 percent lower than a year ago, according to the latest figures from Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
Although prices increased to 23.93p/litre, Northern Ireland (NI) levels dropped to 17.66p/litre - some 36% below the GB average.
Provisional Rural Payments Agency figures showed that UK farmers produced 1048 million litres of milk in August - nearly 1 percent less than a year ago.
Deliveries in NI totalled 828m litres - a 7 percent annual drop possibly due to the lower milk price.
Cumulative UK deliveries in the first five months of the current milk year were 5624 million litres, 0.7 percent below last year.
According to a report, UK milk deliveries have fallen consecutively for the past five years and the current total is the lowest since the 1971-72 milk year.
Average butterfat in August stood at 3.9 percent, just above the 3.83 percent in July, but 12 points below August 2008. Cumulative butterfat was also lower than last year, at 3.9 percent.
