It’s not the first time we’ve heard it said, but it’s good to get a reminder every now and again that choosing to farm organically can actually make sense for the bank balance as well as all the other benefits.
This piece from Business in Dorset about OF&G licensees, Jimi Collis, and his mother, Sarah Worrall, reinforces the point, particularly as Mr Collis used to work in business banking, specialising in farming. He must know what he’s talking about!
Their Launceston Farm, in Tarrant Launceston, is on something of a roll, because Simon in our Quality Systems team also picked up on this lively piece from The Guardian travel section.
B&B, Launceston Farm, Profit
This piece from dairyreporter.com is worthy of recording as a more detailed look at what OMSCo is doing for the Dairy Farmers of Britain organic suppliers, how the co-operative sees the market and what its priorities are.
Good news for the organic dairy farmers affected by Dairy Farmers of Britain going into receivership!
Organic milk co-operative, OMSCo, is to take on all their collections and the marketing of their milk.
The deal, which was first rumoured yesterday, has been concluded quickly and is explained in more detail in this news release.
You can also read about how things are going for all affected suppliers in this Farmers Weekly piece.
dairy, OMSCo
The NFU is maintaining a frequently asked questions section on its website for Dairy Farmers of Britain members who are worrying about where they stand and what the future holds. You can visit the page here (credit to @CarolineFW at Farmers Weekly for flagging up the link).
There are many organic milk producers who may be looking for an alternative buyer following Dairy Farmers of Britain going into administration.
While, unfortunately, we don’t have it in our power to hand out contracts, we thought we could at least aggregate the organic milk buyers we know of for anyone who feels like it’s time to make some calls.
There is word starting to surface about what’s going to happen with DFoB organic collections in the immediate future (good news, it seems), but we’ll update on that if we can confirm what’s being said…
So here’s our list of names and numbers. Good luck!
Dairy Crest – 01372 472571
Omsco – 01934 511 115
Robert Wisemans – 01355 244261
Alvis Brothers – 01934 862320 / 01934 863000
Arla – 01737 852325
Calon Wen – 01994 241 481 (Wales)
First Milk – 0141 887 6111
Milk Link – 01752 331881
Cottswold Dairies – 01684 298959
Bowland Fresh Milk – 01200 445 856 (Lancashire)
Trioni – 01239 682572 (Wales)
milk buyers
The news that Dairy Farmers of Britain has sunk into receivership is extremely sad. That this can happen in a country that has a world-leading reputation and proud heritage in dairy production makes it an appalling state of affairs.
Thousands of farmers across the country are going to be waiting on tenterhooks to find out what is likely to happen and whether they will continue to have an outlet for their product. Included in this are many organic farmers and while organic is only a relatively small part of the picture, consistency of supply is even more critical in the sector, because you can’t just turn it on and off.
If we lose farmers out of organics because of this, they can’t simply re-enter if an opportunity arises – they’ll need to re-convert over the course of two years. Maintaining a balance between supply and demand for organic milk is a delicate thing. At the moment, most indications are that we are fairly close to some kind of equilibrium (it depends who you talk to though).
The problem seems to be in the supply chain and the absence of a fair price being passed back to the producers, even though their costs have risen sharply in recent times. Would we all really be that upset about paying a few pence more for a pint if we knew it was going back to where it was needed?
The trouble is, the big retailers can’t move the price on one of their key benchmark products because it doesn’t play well at all with their customers. The answer is for them all to put up the price, but competition law prevents that from happening in any concerted way. They can’t talk together about things like that. The scenario provides good protection for consumers, but means that market forces at the retail end of the chain are really the only thing determining price – and that’s distorting the rest of the chain.
The good news so far is that the administrators of DFoB are working to try and ensure collections from the member farms continue as normal while they work out whether parts of the business can be sold off. Fingers crossed that they succeed.
Here’s a round-up of some of the coverage on the issue and we’ll continue to keep an eye on it:
Farmers Weekly
Farmers Guardian
Financial Times
Daily Telegraph
dairy farmers, milk
