DairyCo interactive milk price calculator

Farmgate milk prices can vary considerably between different buyers, depending on quality bonuses, seasonality adjustments and several other factors. So how can you tell who will give you the best price over the whole year?

The DairyCo interactive milk price calculator lets you do exactly that. By entering basic information about your farm’s milk production and milk quality, it provides a customised milk price league table.

There are two main options for entering data – both of which are easy to follow and can be done anonymously. The quickest and simplest method is to enter 12-month average figures for butterfat, protein, cell count and bactoscan, then enter monthly milk production volumes. Alternatively, you can input separate monthly figures for the main quality criteria, as well as monthly volumes.

Once that’s done, you simply select whether you want every other day collection or every day collection and choose how you want the results displayed – by contract (alphabetical order), or by price (highest to lowest annual average). You can also get a monthly breakdown of prices for each buyer over the whole year.

What factors are included?
1) DairyCo levy
2) Farm assurance payments
3) Flat membership bonuses
4) Seasonality payments
5) Transport charges – when charges are made according to collections, the following basis has been used:

What’s not included?
1) All prices are before capital retention
2) All prices are before payments to producer bodies
3) All prices are before VAT