DFB joins carousel with milk price cut

DAIRY FARMERS of Britain is the latest milk buyer to announce a cut in the price it pays its producers.

The co-operative, which has more than 3250 members, has unveiled a 0.35p/litre cut which it has backdated to July 1.

Membership director Matt Sheehan blamed rising energy and logistics costs, as well as unexpectedly high payments for better protein and fat levels.

“The principal reason for this reduction is that we are paying out more to our members than anticipated, whilst not fully recouping this from the market.

“These additional payments to members have resulted from increases across a range of aspects of the new payment schedules, including the effect of continued higher compositional quality.”

He also said that competition with other milk processors had put DFB under “severe pressure”.

The cut exactly mirrors that made by Arla at the end of May, which kicked off the current round of milk price deflation.

David Handley of Farmers for Action was due to meet the co-op’s leaders at the Yorkshire Show in an effort to renegotiate the cuts.