Recently in Dairy Category

Producers of goat’s milk supplying Delamere Dairy have received a 1p/litre price increase, effective from January.

The increase applied to nine farms supplying around 7m litres of milk a year and took the price to 53.5p/litre for those with a level production profile and who met the required milk hygiene standards.

“With the number of commercial goat herds in the UK still numbering less than 50, encouraging sustainable and well invested milk herds remains a priority for the company,” Delamere Dairy managing director Ed Salt said.

First Milk has scrapped plans to move its Campbeltown creamery on the Mull of Kintyre and will instead invest in a new cheese-making facility at the existing site.

It says the investment will secure the future of 38 dairy farms and 100 jobs on the peninsula, providing processing efficiency that cannot be achieved with the existing plant.

Funding of the new facility will be supported by up to £2m from the Scottish Government.

First Milk had planned to sell the Campbeltown site to Tesco and relocate to a new location in the town. However, Tesco has indicated that it no longer wishes to buy the site, so the creamery will remain at its current location.

Traditional British Cheddar is the most popular cheese bought during the festive season, a survey by The Dairy Council has revealed.

Of the 1000 people questioned, 76% said they would tuck into Cheddar this Christmas, making it almost twice as popular as Wensleydale (38%), Stilton (42%) and British Brie (35%).

Generally men and women showed similar tastes, although Stilton was more popular among men - 46% choosing it, compared with 39% of women.

“We are pleased that people will be enjoying British cheeses during this festive season, regardless of the type,” Judith Bryans, director of The Dairy Council, said.

“While British Cheddar is certainly a worthy choice as the nation’s favourite this Christmas, people might be surprised to know that Britain produces more varieties of cheese than France.”

Most people surveyed ate cheese with crackers after dinner, rather than in a sandwich at lunchtime.

Interim results from National Milk Records show turnover increased by 3.9% to £8,641,000 during the six months ended 30 September, but operating profit of £379,000 was down on the £496,000 during the same period last year.

The company said a number of new revenue streams were beginning to deliver results, while costs associated with investment in new projects and a laboratory in Staffordshire would affect profitability for the year ended 31 March 2012. “These costs will deliver additional revenue and increased operating margin in the future,” it said.

NMR chairman Philip Kirkham said the outlook remained challenging, despite a favourable outlook for farmgate milk prices. “In the short term production cost on dairy farms has led to a squeeze on cash flow. Selling new products in this environment is challenging but I have been pleased with our success to date and optimistic for future growth.”

Arla Foods is to start selling dairy commodities on the GlobalDairyTrade online trading platform in a bid to access more international markets.

It will begin offering Skim Milk Powder and medium and low heat products from April 2012.

“We believe that the growth potential on the European markets will continue to be under pressure in the years to come, and we are therefore increasing our focus on the growing markets in the Middle East, Africa and Asia,” Arla Foods chief executive Peder Tuborgh said.

“A part of our strategy is to conduct an efficient trading business on those markets. The GlobalDairyTrade auction platform is one of the tools we intend to use to reach and service new and present customers in a cost effective way.”

Dairy nutrition company Volac has posted strong results for the last financial year. Operating profit was £12.5m on turnover of £121m, up by almost 38% year-on-year.

The company, which has seven production facilities - five in the UK, one in The Netherlands, and one in Malaysia - said the business’s strength had been helped by a programme of collaborative investments over recent years.

This has included a total investment of over £10m in a lactose plant, increased milk replacer capacity and expanded whey protein site at Felinfach, Wales; a £7m investment with Milk Link at the Taw Valley Creamery; and acquisition of specialist young animal nutrition business Parnutt Foods.

Rising costs are set to push the average cost of production for feed wheat up to £130/t for 2012, according to the latest forecast from Agro Business Consultants.

The November edition of its costing book shows that costs including rent and finance charge are up about £6/t on 2011, although with a predicted selling price of £140/t, feed wheat is still profitable without support.

Oilseed rape was also likely to give a decent margin. Costs were set to rise by £13/t to £320/t, but this was still £25 below the budgeted selling price.

But margins for feed winter barley were less promising as costs were predicted to total £153/t, over £20/t above the expected selling price.

There was also inflationary pressure in the livestock sector. For example, production costs for a year-round calving dairy herd were put at 25.6p/litre, up by just over a penny from the current year.

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In a bid to increase fresh milk consumption, Robert Wiseman Dairies has invested £2m in a joint venture with New Zealand dairy business A2 Corporation to launch a range of products next summer suitable for people with self-diagnosed intolerance of milk.

The range of “a2 Milk” products comes from cows selected to produce only the A2 beta-casein protein. The milk has been available for several years in Australia, where it is said to have improved symptoms among people with self-diagnosed intolerance of milk but are not medically diagnosed as being lactose intolerant.

“By introducing a2 Milk alongside our existing range of fresh milk products we have an exciting opportunity to bring people back to dairy and grow the market for fresh milk in Britain,” Billy Keane, managing director of Robert Wiseman Dairies said.

There are encouraging signs that the national beef supply base is stabilising, according to EBLEX.

Analysis of British Cattle Movement Service data showed that just under 2.63m calves were registered with BCMS in the year to July 2011, around 20,000 head up on the previous year and 65,000 more than 2008/09. It brings registrations back to the level of 2007/08.

Some 470,000 calves were pure-bred dairy heifers, leaving nearly 2.16m available for the beef industry, 2% more than 2008/09.

Dairy-sired calf numbers were down slightly due to a sharp fall in male registrations offsetting a rise in dairy heifers.

Limousins remained the most widely used beef sire, continuing to record more than double the registrations of the next most popular breeds - Charolais and Aberdeen Angus.

Five EU member states will pay superlevy fines totalling more than £48m for exceeding their milk quota in 2010/11.

Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria, Cyprus and Luxembourg bust their dairy quotas by a total of 200,000t.

However 14 member states recorded deliveries at least 10% lower than their quota and production across the whole of the EU was 6% lower than quota.