* Average Farm Business Income in the year to Feb 2023 for dairy rose by 63% to £229,200.Across the whole arable and livestock sectors there was a 12% increase to £96,100.
* The total agricultural labour force in the UK on 1 June 2023 was 462,074 down 1.7% on a year earlier.
* Data on Farm Business Income by type in England for the year to Feb 28 has been published.65% of dairy farms earned over £100k.
* Results from the Scottish Agricultural Census for June 2023 have just been published.Cattle numbers fell by 3% compared to the 5 year average to 1.68 millions.The beef herd is down 12% compared to 10 years ago whereas the dairy herd has increased by 6%.
* The UK average all milk price for Oct,published in Dec, was 37.03 pence per litre (p/l).0.67 above the Sept price but 13.6 p/l below the price a year earlier.The EU average for Oct was 39.52 p/l. 0.97 above the Sept average and 11.25 p/l below the price a year earlier.
* Arla has increased its price for both conventional and organic milk by 0.89 p/l taking the conventional price to 36.1 p/l and the organic to 43.54 p/l.Saputo has increased its negotiated base price by 1 p/l to 36.5 p/l the same level as Barbers.
* Management of DairyPro and PigPro has moved from AHDB to BASIS.
* A new Let’s eat Balanced marketing campaign has been launched by AHDB.
Hope that this is of interest.As ever happy to take any queries/questions.
Tim Brigstocke
Policy Director,RABDF