Are liquid milk price premiums still available?
Milk contracts are an important issue for all dairy farmers and Newcastle University’s School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, supported by RABDF, has developed a survey that is aimed at helping to understand farmers’ attitudes to their contract, their milk buyer, and the milk market. This research aims to investigate two issues that are critical to the UK milk industry. The price behaviours of the UK liquid milk market since the industry’s deregulation, and also how prices have changed will first need to be determined. Following this, the investigation will turn to further understanding if this has influenced farmers’ decision making when it comes to selecting milk purchasers. Milk purchasers claim that the liquid milk price premium once paid to UK milk producers through the Milk Marketing Board (MMB) no longer exists. That is, that new marketing arrangements that were put in place when the MMB was disbanded have driven the milk price down to its manufacturing value. Howeve
