GB milk deliveries in February 2024 have declined by 1.1% year on year, totalling 973 million litres, due to reduced yields and high input costs. The global milk production also saw a decline, but is expected to grow modestly by 0.25% in 2024. The dairy market is currently quiet, with butter seeing increased demand and small price gains, while SMP, cheddar, and bulk cream prices have reduced. The milk market values dropped slightly to 35.9ppl in February, with the latest farmgate price at 37.7ppl in January. Input costs, including fuel, feed wheat, and fertiliser, have eased.
Disclaimer: The above summary was generated by a state-of-the-art LLM model and is intended for informational purposes only. It is recommended that readers refer to the original article for more context.
Original content
GB milk deliveries are estimated to have totalled 973 million litres in the 29 days of February 2024 with an average of 33.6 million litres per day. This would mean a decline of 1.1% year on year. Production for the milk season to date (April to January) totals 11.23 billion litres, slightly behind (-0.6%) the same point in 2023. This is currently running ahead of the latest forecast revision, which is due to be revised in March ahead of the flush. This is the lowest milk volume recorded since the 2016/17 milk season. The decline in volume is most likely to be driven by reduced yields as the GB dairy herd recorded only marginal change year on year in the latest BCMS data. Although farmgate milk prices have seen some improvement in the most recent months, many producers are still struggling with high input costs and interest rates eroding farm margins and working capital. This is providing little incentive to push cows. An extremely wet start to the year will not help in allowing ...
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