£4.5m bonus payment goes to SMmembers
£4.5m bonus payment goes to SMmembers
SCOTTISH Milk has announced a final bonus payment of 0.3p/litre for the year to the end of March. The total bonus or 13th payment was £4.5m or 0.6p/litre with advances paid earlier this year. It was worth £3000 to the average SM member.
That bonus, and the previously announced Milk Marque top-up of 0.29p/litre, have been included in the average price for last milk year in our milk price review.
This will be especially welcome, given the continued downward pressure on prices this month, partly due to seasonal adjustment.
Milk Marque has dropped its butterfat payments by 4% to 1.78p a %, and protein payments by 5% to 2.99p a %. MD Foods has dropped its butterfat price by twice that level, to 1.8p a %, though the fixed part of its milk price has increased 0.07p to 6.22p/litre.
Lancashire Dairies has dropped its base price to 19.53p/litre, a fall of 0.23p/litre. Wyke Farms, Bodfari and the Milk Group have also rejigged butterfat and protein prices, which are now about 4-5% lower.
An agreement has also been signed between Scottish Milk and energy broker Greenknowe Energy which gives members the opportunity to cut electricity costs by between 17% and 19% or about £1000 for the average producer. Further discounts for next year are being discussed. The power bill for SM members was estimated at more than £5m.