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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To want to pay more for my milk?

172 replies

hillyhilly · 21/01/2015 22:10

I don't want to screw British farmers but aside from a farm shop, I genuinely don't know where I should buy it.
I try to buy organic where possible and generally buy from Aldi though I do top up at Morrison's and Sainsburys local stores
I've looked for a facebook page but the one I found is not as active as it should be given the current focus.

OP posts:
penguinpear · 22/01/2015 07:21

Yanbu, Yeo valley is a good option, also for yoghurt and cheese. Waitrose, m and s Tesco and Sainsbury pay best to farmers according to the Sunday Times.

Avoid aldi, lidl and Asda.

bigbluestars · 22/01/2015 07:36

I wouldn't mind, but we use less than 1 litre a week between 5 of us.

Some families rely heavily on milk as a foodstuff though.

ASunnyTiger · 22/01/2015 07:43

RiverFord organics maybe? I asked them about keeping calves with the mothers and was told they're kept until after weaning, and that some of their producers keep them within the herd for as long as practically possible. From an animal welfare viewpoint at least they're a good option.

Back2Two · 22/01/2015 07:50

This reply has been withdrawn

This post has been withdrawn due to privacy concerns

ArgyMargy · 22/01/2015 07:55

I don't drink milk but I love yoghurt, cream, cheese and other dairy products. Very happy to pay more and I can't bear the thought of all these farmers going under. Perhaps they need support to move to producing higher margin products. And yes to Fair Trade milk.

Taz1212 · 22/01/2015 07:55

I would happily pay more for milk. We used to use the local milkman but he was so unreliable. He would quite often miss at least one delivery then dump a whole load on us days later to make up for it. It was feast or famine! We gave him 6 months to get himself sorted out but then cancelled. If someone else were to start up in our area I would definitely try them.

WaltzingWithReindeers · 22/01/2015 08:02

Organic dairying person here ... just declaring a bias.

Obviously (due to the above!!) I strongly recommend buying organic. For welfare reasons, health reasons, ethical ones (see the below paragraph) plus the farmers generally get a much fairer premium for their milk.

I'd also add that the majority of organic bull calves (and indeed many conventional bull calves) are not shot at birth these days. On our farm we rear them as rose veal and slaughter them at just under a year old, so their life is longer than that of the average lamb, pig or chicken.

There's an interesting thread at the moment on The Farming Forum about how, as a consumer to help farmers buy buying milk for a fair price here - refers to conventional milk, not just organic. It's quite an interesting debate.

Will check the thread later once have sorted kids for school and done me cow jobs!!

pudcat · 22/01/2015 08:07

I have milkman and so do pay more my milk BUT now the dairy has closed all its local offices and everything goes through a call centre in the Phillipines. So in trying to be fair to one group of people others are losing out. If my delivery was wrong before, I rang the local depot and the milkman came back with missing milk, even one time when 2 pints had been stole from doorstep. Now I get missing milk/ cream credited to my account and have to go to supermarket. Hubby was not pleased Christmas Eve when he had to go and but some cream. So not sure what the answer is.

Bodicea · 22/01/2015 08:09

Does buying organic mean they get a fair price? I will buy if it does. I tend to do most of my shopping in booths, sainsburys and tesco so happy about that. I do get cravendale a lot. Is that ok?

Bodicea · 22/01/2015 08:13

I just realised you answered most of my questions waltzing. Feel better that cravendale is ok. I prefer it anyway. Do all organic farmers get a fair price though?

WaltzingWithReindeers · 22/01/2015 08:16

Generally yes Bodicea. Our organic coop, which supplies to the public 60% plus of the total organic milk in the market pays a fair price.

Some of the other milk coops as I understand - a few of those that supply organic milk as well as conventional - have very cynically lowered the premium paid to their organic suppliers in line with those of their conventional producers - which is based on pure greed, as the organic price in supermarkets has not gone down the pan like conventional, so there really was no need.

That aside, yes organic producers are guaranteed a fairer price.

junemami · 22/01/2015 08:19

What dairy farmers get paid isn't just based on liquid milk price, but other factors/commodities like cheese, dairy products, powdered milk (lots used to be exported to China but much less now) and even things like high protein products for sports. Please try and ensure you buy british, esp for things like cheese as there's a lot of Irish stuff on the shelves.

Our bull calves are reared for beefand have been for some years now, hope we never go back to those bad old days of calves going for less than £1.

Yes many farmers own land, but most of them have heavy borrowings, & have invested heavily to improve things like herd health, fertility, productivity (yes getting more intensive but welfare is paramount for most farmers as otherwise cows don't get into calf, don't milk as well & are at risk of infections). Some farmers don't have a buyer for their milk from February, so NO income. They will go under very quickly. Sadly this is what needs to happen to improve prices for those who are left.

Guiltypleasures001 · 22/01/2015 08:22

I've been thinking about this a lot ide gladly pay a higher price to keep them in business, ide also be happy if it the price was fixed.

Plonkysaurus · 22/01/2015 08:30

I think it's another symptom of the supermarket giant problem really. I've recently started buying meat from the butcher in town rather than doing a full supermarket shop, so now I will start buying organic milk to do my bit there.

Ethics aren't really that expensive, but we've been led to believe they are.

Artandco · 22/01/2015 08:34

We always buy duchy Waitrose organic and Yeo valley yogurts/ other dairy so I'm fairly happy we pay a fairer price

We also drink oat/ coconut milk so don't buy a huge amount of regular milk

Brummiegirl15 · 22/01/2015 08:44

I would happily pay more for milk.

When I look at milk prices I don't think "wow that's cheap it's a really good price" I think "it's scarily cheap"

Stubbed · 22/01/2015 09:09

What about a local milkman? Mine is expensive but happy to pay and it's convenient

gatewalker · 22/01/2015 09:25

I have now decided to buy from Riverford, which is more expensive, but then we'll just have to cut down our milk consumption. I think it's awful that farmers are now making a loss -- not even breaking even.

Btw, I checked out Dairy Crest's online site milkandmore -- it isn't much better.

maninawomansworld · 22/01/2015 10:23

If you want to help dairy farmers then a good rule of thumb is to only buy British milk and avoid supermarkets.

Milk (or anything else for that matter) being organic has absolutely NOTHING to do with animal welfare, fair prices or anything else at all. It is a common misconception that buying organic is any better that non organic. All it means is that there are no external artificial fertilizers / feeds etc.

Organic chickens can still live in battery cages, organic milk can still be produced in giant indoor sheds and the farmer selling it can still be screwed by the supermarket.

Inthedarkaboutfashion · 22/01/2015 10:28

We can buy fair trade coffee, fair trade bananas, fair trade flowers (all foreign imports. Why can't we buy British fair trade milk? There is clearly a market for it. I would happily buy British fair trade milk at 80p a pint if I know that the farmer is getting a fair price

Messygirl · 22/01/2015 10:35

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BeggarsCantBeChoosers · 22/01/2015 10:39

I saw a guardian article on Facebook where they said to avoid Morrisons, lidl, aldi, co-OP, mace, and dairy-crest if you use the milk man. Asda were also the worst supermarket as they pay less than 30p per litre. The others pay 30p or more, but Abel and Cole are the best as they pay a lot more.

BeggarsCantBeChoosers · 22/01/2015 11:04

Found the article! Costs Paid To Farmers

queenofwesteros · 22/01/2015 11:48

well, as a result of this thread I went looking and found out I have a local dairy farm with high animal welfare standards who deliver to my area twice a week. So I've registered with them and will bin the supermarkets for dairy products immediately. So, thank you OP Smile