Price of Milk

4 watchers

Keefy Beefy Nov 2016 8:09am, 22 Nov 2016 9,415 posts	0 Keefy Beefy I just paid £1 for 4 pints in Tesco. The Beeb says it was 23p a pint in 1986. Pretty amazing - and the packaging has a "Fair for farmers" logo on it. How does thay work?
BaronessBL Nov 2016 8:17am, 22 Nov 2016 6,058 posts	0 BaronessBL The 4 pints bottle will be a loss leader. A single pint would probably have cost you about 50p - and probably more in somewhere that wasn't Tesco.... Oh now I feel like I'm a politician being asked the price of a pint of milk and I don't know what that is....
Winded Nov 2016 8:32am, 22 Nov 2016 4,954 posts	0 Winded You may notice that quite a lot of the milk in Tesco (across the country if not across one shop) has different labelling. it allows them to say they pay farmers a decent price when actually they mostly don't. It isn't just that there is a big squeeze on farmers and prices. Farming has become a lot more efficient including an increase in average herd sizes on dairy farms. In 1986 it was common to have dairy herds of 50 cows, now that is a novelty as it just isn't viable. 100+ was relatively rare then but is now the bare minimum to stay in business. Mostly though milk is cheap because of the market dynamics including imports - something that Brexit will almost certainly not change at all but which nevertheless pushed some rural people towards voting for it.
Dai Bank Nov 2016 8:57am, 22 Nov 2016 4,638 posts	0 Dai Bank Most of the dairy farmers I looked after got out of that sector in the 1990s, some went to beef, one went to alpaca(he was very succesful), some sold up completely. Milk is a loss leader as BBL said above.
Lesley C Nov 2016 9:06am, 22 Nov 2016 948 posts	0 Lesley C I noticed in Morrison's that they stamped giving an extra 23p to farmers on some bottles and then adding the 23p to the price of it. Not all the bottles had this on it put some were £1 for 4 pints and the bottles giving farmers a fair price were £1.23 for the same amount. They have maybe changed it that was a couple of months ago. Farmers should be paid fairly whether its crops/milk/meat. Its a tough job, working long hours.
Keefy Beefy Nov 2016 9:46am, 22 Nov 2016 9,416 posts	0 Keefy Beefy Keefy Beefy values your replies.
Wriggling Snake Nov 2016 9:54am, 22 Nov 2016 13,787 posts	0 Wriggling Snake What happened to Sterilised?
LindsD Nov 2016 11:53am, 22 Nov 2016 13,257 posts	0 LindsD We get ours delivered, it's organic, and we pay 80p a pint. I realise that by admitting this I am doomed for ever to be dismissed as too middle class. It tastes bloody marvellous, the containers are recycled, and I like chatting with the milkman when he comes for his money (he's a cyclist and has great legs)
Derby Tup Nov 2016 11:54am, 22 Nov 2016 21,981 posts	0 Derby Tup
Dai Bank Nov 2016 1:39pm, 22 Nov 2016 4,639 posts	0 Dai Bank I had a row from Mrs DB for selecting organic milk a couple of weeks ago. I agree with LindsD that it does taste bloody marvellous but have lacked the courage to provoke another telling off by buying more lol.