Nice cold, ice cold….

If you drink milk, you really should eat veal.

why, is it a taste combination to die for?

The milk price will rise (due to falling production), everyone will be happy.

Where are the cows, and the land, going to come from to turn this magic milk tap back on again?

I’m all for farmers facing a bit of reality and diversifying, but food production is something you can’t easily chop and change.

Milk price has fallen and Farmers will go out of business. The milk price will rise (due to falling production), everyone will be happy.

I don’t think farmers going out of business and prices rising while massive supermarkets gleefully rub their hands is going to result in consumers or citizens’ happiness.

A friend is a tenant-farmer and is absolutely raking it in.

One anecdote is not data.

If you drink milk, you really should eat veal get weaned

cheese, of course, is the only acceptable form of milk for anyone over the age of a few years to consume 😡

One anecdote is not data.

Of course it is. Just a very tiny piece of data and worthless in isolation.

I may be wrong but isn’t “data” a plural?

[Pedant’s hat etc.]

it’s nothing short of obscene that farmer’s make a loss while supermarkets make a profit.

The milkman brings mine but I don’t know if farmers do any better out of that supply chain. Oh and I do like a spot of rose veal every so often.

I struggle with the over simplification of all these arguments. Supermarket milk is a mere bit player in the milk market but everyone likes a good moan about the big nasty supermarkets. The fact is liquid milk prices are largely irrelevant as so little of the milk that leaves the farmer’s gate is consumed like that. It’s the price paid by the food manufacturers that is the significant factor in the sustainability of the average dairy farmer.

Only that isn’t quite true: they all operate on a 3-5% margin (I don;t know specifically what margin they get for milk).

So the BBC’s infographic is wrong?[/quote]

Maybe not wrong, but is misleading. That ‘markup’ be retailers/processors isn’t just profit to them, within there is the costs of processing, transporting, stacking shelves, refrigerating, wastage for product not sold, checkout operators, free carriers, the shop, the business rates etc. The profit will only be a few % if at all.

If we want farmers to get more, we should expect to have to pay more.

I may be wrong but isn’t “data” a plural?

[Pedant’s hat etc.]

Absolutely correct, “data” is the plural of “data”.

cheese, of course, is the only acceptable form of milk for anyone over the age of a few years to consume

So for breakfast you enjoy nothing more than a bowl of cheesy flakes?

😐

squirrelking – Member

So for breakfast you enjoy nothing more than a bowl of cheesy flakes?

No cereal flakes in my diet either – breakfast is fruit, protein and veg 😀
Breakfast cereal is pretty much just baby food with crunchy bits, you need to quit those kiddy comfort foods and start eating stuff from a farm not a factory.
😛

I could never live without coco pops

yeah, I reallllly miss all that sugar and salt in my diet 🙄

Thats a shame. Go out and buy a pack, you’ll love them.

Go out and buy a pack…

buy them!!!
I wouldn’t even steal them 😉

The fact is liquid milk prices are largely irrelevant as so little of the milk that leaves the farmer’s gate is consumed like that. It’s the price paid by the food manufacturers that is the significant factor in the sustainability of the average dairy farmer.

what percentage of milk consumed in the UK is sold retail via supermarkets?

are supermarkets price setters or price takers in the UK milk market?

Absolutely correct, “data” is the plural of “data”.

Not that it has any bearing on anything but, it’s the plural of “datum” isn’t it?

breakfast is fruit, protein and veg
Breakfast cereal is pretty much just baby food with crunchy bits, you need to quit those kiddy comfort foods and start eating stuff from a farm not a factory.

Milk is food.

So is cereal.

Both of which are produced at farms IIRC, not that it has anything to do with milk & cereal and their suitability as human nourishment.

If we want farmers to get more, we should expect to have to pay more.

Ermmm! That’s the debate and made on the first post.

Flaperon – Member

A friend is a tenant-farmer and is absolutely raking it in.

One anecdote is not data.

In your desire to be chippy, you seem to have missed that I was asking a question.

hilldodger – Member

cheese, of course, is the only acceptable form of milk for anyone over the age of a few years to consume

I enjoy few things more than a cheddar latte.

Chocolate cheese-shake for me please!

(datum is a single piece of information, data is a collection of them.

The anecdote above is data in my view – three bits of information – 1. farmer, 2. cheshire, 3. raking it in)

I enjoy few things more than a cheddar latte

latte drinkers 🙄 you know where the sea is, get in it…..

hilldodger, are you running for the STW sanctimony award of the day? 😉

are you running for the STW sanctimony award of the day?

Happy to podium for that 😉

Good point, there’s a lot of tough competition 😉

what percentage of milk consumed in the UK is sold retail via supermarkets?

Going from what was on Radio 4’s farming today a couple of weeks ago less than 30% of milk produced in the UK is consumed as liquid milk (bought from supermarkets, doorstep deliveries, wherever). The rest is used is the production of dairy products and other food stuffs. We don’t export hardly any liquid milk but a hell of a solid milk derived food stuffs.

30% is still a hell of a lot but the bod on the radio talking for the farmers said the supermarkets were not the problem, especially as so many do the ‘living wage’ contract thing. He said every farmer wanted a supermarket contract; the ones having it tough were those selling to the food producers.

Your anger is better served by demanding to spend more on cheese, yoghurt and all the processed foods with powdered milk in them.