William Waterfield (Andover)

At a recent meeting of the British Group of the European Dairy Farmers Club (EDF) a persuasive argument was made that UK dairy farmers were falling behind their European counter parts in attempts to control increasing labour and machinery costs.  The data presented to the meeting clearly showed that over the last 4 years the UK dairy farmer had seen these costs increase by substantially greater amounts than their European counter parts and much of the difference was due to the European dairy farmer increasing output at a much faster rate than the British farmer.

Looking at figures presented in the Cost of Milk Production report 2023-24 from my colleagues and accountants Old Mill, highlights that on average Labour and Power and Machinery cost (Cost Of Doing Work CODW) have on a per litre basis risen in the last 12 months by 15%.  Whilst not exactly the same dataset, the Cost of Milk Report highlights that milk sales had actually fallen, both herd size and milk yield were down.