Milk price increase needed to allow investment

So to 2013, and what surely must be a better year than last.

However, by the end of February things have yet to dry up and cows are averaging about 30 litres. This is two litres down on this time last year, while concentrate use (and cost) has increased to maintain this production.

This outweighs the current increase in milk price compared to this time last year and my last word on milk price would be to remind those who influence it that it must still increase to allow investment in the industry’s future. It is not so we can all drive flash cars and live lavish lifestyles.

All good things come to an end (or bad things, depending on your point of view) and this is to be my last Farmer Focus contribution. Like an exhausted old bull I have finally been put out to grass, but having started writing in 2000, I have had a good run for my money, or well and truly outstayed my welcome.

The cows I wrote about back then are all long gone. I have survived various editors and fellow columnists, and perhaps most amazingly, remained happily married to Sharon ( I would like to thank my long suffering wife for reminding me to say that). Looking back, a lot has happened, but little has changed. We now have 200 cows, giving 9,000 litres (as opposed to 125 giving 6,500), four robots, new buildings, more young stock and fewer staff.

My cautious plan for the future back then was to “stay in business” and I was hoping for “a brighter dairy industry in the future”. Thirteen years on I am happy to report that the former still applies, but sad that the industry is still not as bright as it should be from the milk producer’s point of view.

It is now up to someone else to moan about the weather, dairy inspectors, milk buyers, supermarkets, red tape and milk price. Or who knows, perhaps this time next year, we’ll be millionaires.

Steve Brown farms 200ha in County Durham, in partnership with his parents. The family’s 200-cow herd is run at Hopper House with replacements on grass at a separate unit.

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