First Milk holds December milk price

First Milk members join many other milk producers who will get no price rise for December.

World dairy commodity markets movements and a softer outlook for future market performance were to blame, said farmer director and vice-chairman Jim Baird.

“Our continued focus remains on driving efficiency and quality through our operations, building on our strong, long-term relationships to deliver competitive total returns to our members.”

The price hold follows four consecutive months of milk price increases by the co-op.

See also: Milk processing drives thriving farm retail business

So far only Dairy Crest has bucked the trend for December, with a 0.5p/litre increase for its Dairy Crest Davidstow suppliers, taking their standard liquid litre milk price to 30.92p/litre and the manufacturing standard litre to 32p/litre.

First Milk’s member milk prices will rose by 0.52p/ litre from 1 November on a manufacturing standard litre of 4.2% butterfat and 3.4% protein. 29.09p/litre to 30.57p/ litre.

Muller has said it will not be increasing prices for next month while Arla has yet to announce for December.