Policy Update-Dec 2022
1.It appears that the Government intends major changes to the Environmental Land Management (ELMs) scheme that will see the Local Nature Recovery completely shelved. Further details are due shortly.
2.The Government has increased Defra's budget from £4.1 billions to £4.5 billions but is expected to fall back in the 2023/24 and 2024/25 years.
3.The first round of the Slurry Infrastructure Grant has opened for applications with £13 millions available to farmers to build 6 months slurry storage capacity. Details have already been circulated in Milk Digest.
4.Average Farm Business Income in the year to Feb 2022 has increased across all sectors other than for specialist pig farms. On dairy farms average income rose by 52% to £140,200.Overall across all farm types the Basic Payment accounted for a third of Farm Business Income.
5.Promar International has been awarded the new data collection contract which will form the basis of Defra's Farm Business Survey. This was previously the domain of the Farm Business/ Economic units based at various UK universities.
6.The UK average All Milk price for Sept, reported this month, was 48.80 pence per litre, an increase of 2.09 above the August average and way above the rolling 5 year average of 31.46 pence/litre. The Oct average is predicted to sit higher still at 50.44.
The EU average for Sept was 0.27 pence per litre above the UK average at 49.07 ppl, a 3.50 ppl improvement over the August EU average.
7.The Veterinary Medicines Directorate has reported in the latest UK-Veterinary Antibiotic Resistance Sales and Surveillance (VARSS) annual report that sales of antibiotics for use in livestock have reduced by 55% since 2014 to the lowest ever recorded level. Sales of Highest Priority Critically Important Antibiotics declined for a 7th consecutive year, down 83% on 2014 to just 0.4 per cent of antibiotic sales.
8.According to BCMS data, calf registrations to dairy dams were 430,084 head in the period July-Sept,1.3 % down on the same period last year but 2.3% above the 5 year average.
9.The latest AHDB survey estimates that there were 7,850 GB dairy producers in Oct, down 150 on the previous year, but a fall of only 30 on the numbers in April. The average volume per farm remains unchanged from both last Oct and April at 1.57 million litres per year.
10.First Milk is to partner with Arla Foods Ingredients to produce a specialist whey protein at its creamery in the Lake District. The protein is used as an ingredient to enhance the level of protein in food and drink products while retaining texture and taste.
11.The Agricultural Price index for Sept shows increases of 7.1% for seeds, compared to a year earlier,55.1% for energy and lubricants,112.4% for fertilisers, 9.8% for chemicals ,1.8% for veterinary services,35.1% for animal feedstuffs,7.2% for equipment maintenance and 16.7% for buildings maintenance. The % increase since a month earlier in August are all less than 1% though.
Hope that's of interest and use. As ever happy to receive any comments/questions/queries.
Tim Brigstocke
Policy Director.