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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that the price of Milk is just too cheap

151 replies

RudeBarbandCustard · 24/04/2015 10:46

I'm shocked at how cheap milk has become, and I think it's really worrying that a pint of milk is now cheaper than bottled water.

I usually buy my milk with my supermarket shop, so I have to confess I've never taken any notice of the actual price until now.

The other day, I bought 2 x 4 Pint bottles of milk from the corner shop. I expected it to cost around £4... so I was stunned when I realized they were just £1 each. What's more, in our local Asda a 4 pint bottle is 89p!

Considering people happily pay £2 or more for a bottle of water these days, I think it's disgusting that the supermarket price wars have driven the price of milk down like this.

I don't know much about this issue, so I'm prepared to be educated, but personally I think it's appalling. Do any of the supermarkets pay a fair price for their milk??

OP posts:
Original poster
RudeBarbandCustard · 24/04/2015 15:34

That's fine, I don't mind having to use up surplus milk (check out my username for one favourite Wink ) I haven't made home made rice pud for years, but I'm very tempted now. I could use up the gallons of supermarket milk we currently have before we go on to the lovely creamy milkman delivered stuff!

OP posts:
TheGirlFromIpanema · 24/04/2015 15:50

YY agree with it not being so easily available/on demand when you have it delivered, I have mine delivered 3 times a week only. Milky has another round for three more days... one round is not generally enough customers these days as fewer people opt in.
He leaves 2 pints on doorsteps of houses he see's new people in now, with a leaflet. This seems to be working ok-ish at building up regular customers, although quite a lot do take the two pints (of course - he is giving it) and never order from him.

He said once that he doubts there will be enough of a round left to support his son or daughter when he retires Sad He's a 3rd generation milky too, his second round came when his dad retired and they had got too small for everyday drop offs.

cozietoesie · 24/04/2015 15:57

Make some rice pudding then to remind yourself - it's wonderful stuff. You'd best use pudding rice though so unless you have some of that in the cupboard, it probably won't be tonight.

(Funnily enough, one of the clearer childhood memories I have - of that dairy farm - is not just helping with the calfing but of coming into the warm kitchen after the birth was over and having big bowls of macaroni pudding (made like rice pudding) with the farm's own milk in it. The memory of that taste has remained with me for years.)

Original poster
RudeBarbandCustard · 24/04/2015 16:32

Does it work with risotto rice? If not, I'll definitely pop out to get some pudding rice on the weekend, I have a craving now!

OP posts:
Andrewofgg · 24/04/2015 17:01

We had a plastic shelf with a lid which kept the bluetits out - if that were now someone on MN would say that it was ecologically unsound to do that.

cozietoesie · 24/04/2015 17:06

...Does it work with risotto rice?...

I don't know, I'm afraid. I've tried most kinds of rice but surprisingly not that one. I think you need to lay down for the sake of Mumsnet and report back on the outcome. Smile

chickenfuckingpox · 24/04/2015 17:07

i wont pay so low for my milk i dont see how they will ever make a profit at all

anonymice · 24/04/2015 17:10

Angry just realised my milkman is basically Dairy Crest and they are no better than the supermarkets. Bloody hell. Now what? Anyone know any independent milkmen in the West Midlands please?

cozietoesie · 24/04/2015 17:11

I don't think many dairy farmers even cover their costs, chicken. An actual profit would likely be a pipe dream to them.

sashh · 25/04/2015 07:36

I'm conflicted. While we could afford to pay 65p a pint for milk, it would be a big jump in costs at the rate that DP uses it.

Start with 1 pint delivered and buy the rest from the supermarket and each week get one more from the milkperson and 1 less from the supermarket.

I don't use much milk, I'm lactose intolerant so buy it in when I know I'm going to have visitors who want milk in their tea, is there any way I can just buy an occasional pint from a farmer/milkround?

OhYouBadBadKitten · 25/04/2015 08:38

the milkman in our area is also dairy crest. Its rubbish.

Effendi · 25/04/2015 08:45

In Cyprus a 1.5 ltr bottle of milk can cost between €1.89 and €2.15 depending where it is purchased. Lidl is probably the cheapest.

cozietoesie · 25/04/2015 09:15

As I mentioned, I buy organic milk so the prices some people have quoted from supermarkets are quite shockingly low to me. I'm not one to cry in my beer over big business's problems but I have real sympathy for dairy farmers. After all, what are they supposed to do ? Sell the land that their family have farmed for generations and send all the herds off to make meat pies? I should imagine that many of them are just grimly keeping on and hoping that something - anything - will change for them.

StickEm · 25/04/2015 09:30

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

cozietoesie · 25/04/2015 11:12

I do also - at least in highly mechanized modern dairy producing places. Cows are pleasant and highly social animals. (You interfere with their pecking order at your peril if you're a dairy farmer.) They don't deserve to be No 468 etc.

caroldecker · 25/04/2015 11:46

Not sure anyone has explained why UK dairy farmers should be kept in business?

UrbaneLandlord · 25/04/2015 11:50

I don't understand why dairy farmers should expect to inherit a "job for life" from their ancestors and pass the same privilege on, in perpetuity, to their descendants. Why does anyone expect this?

In many cases, they are occupying family-owned farmland worth £100,000s or £1,000,000s. How much sympathy do millionaires expect?

I welcome the drop in the price of milk: it's a very welcome example of free market forces increasing the spending power of the poorest people in society.

My advice to unprofitable dairy farmers: sell up! And re-train or use your agricultural skills to earn a profitable living elsewhere - like the rest of us!

It'll be great news for the economy to increase the labour supply in other areas where demand is greater!

FirstWeTakeManhattan · 25/04/2015 11:53

We buy Our Cow Molly milk, which is produced by a family with a small farm nearby, and the milk is fresh that day. We supplement with organic milk from a milkman, and occasionally with Yeo organic.

It's worth having a google to see if you can buy direct from a local dairy farm. Molly milk is distributed in a few places where we live, but I had to seek it out.

GraysAnalogy · 25/04/2015 12:05

I'm sure you wouldn't be saying that if it was your livelihood being driven out by the giants of the market.

caroldecker · 25/04/2015 12:24

grays many people have been driven out of livelihoods due to changing fashions, technology and global trading. What about mangle manufacturers being driven out of business by the giant washing machine bastards.
Supermarkets are 'giants' because they have a lot of customers. This is because they provide a service which frees up a large amount of time for, mainly, women and reduces the cost of food, providing more money for other things. As people have said upthread, we spend a lot less on food now than in the past, which enables us to spend on technology to discuss the issue here.

EddieStobbart · 25/04/2015 12:32

Fine, have only industrial style farms in the UK where cows never go outdoors and disease is controlled by huge doses of antibiotics. At least it will be cheap. We can always buy UHT as well and have no UK dairy farmers at all.

However, if you live around Edinburgh, Yester Farm deliver their own milk www.yesterfarmdairies.co.uk (I am not connected in any way except as a customer).

GraysAnalogy · 25/04/2015 12:50

carol those things came with technological advances, not with greed of companies.

People losing their livelihoods, their family homes because we aren't willing to pay a few pence more is ridiculous.

People aren't interested in ethics now are they. It's sad.

cozietoesie · 25/04/2015 12:50

....we spend a lot less on food now than in the past, which enables us to spend on technology to discuss the issue here.....

Some investigation would probably reveal that we spend a lot less on food now due to a combination of the big players using financial muscle to drive down prices to unsustainable levels and through relying on cheap labour from people who have no choice but to provide it if they want to live. Oh - and adulteration of food so that you can combine maximum taste and calories with minimum price to the manufacturer.

Those are the main things I think.

I have no particular brief for different parts of the dairy industry and neither do I believe that there is some inalienable right to continue to farm in the way your ancestors always did and on the same land. I do, however, see the way in which large companies are driving industry to our long term detriment and for their own financial gain.

Cheap prices in the UK may look good right now to many people but having to explain to future generations why we allowed ourselves to lose the ability to produce decent food with relative care and to start consuming what is - frankly - mostly rubbish is not a prospect I relish.

Original poster
RudeBarbandCustard · 25/04/2015 12:56

I don't understand why dairy farmers should expect to inherit a "job for life" from their ancestors and pass the same privilege on, in perpetuity, to their descendants. Why does anyone expect this?

I do tend to agree with you on this Urbane. I come from a family of civil servants, no family business in my family. DH comes from a family business, and works hard for every penny. He doesn't get subsidies, and if fashions, or spending habits change - he has to change with them or go out of business. No one is protesting to save his business or way of life. So yes, I agree that farmer's have no more 'right' to keep their way of life than any of us do.

I live in a rural area. All of the young generation farmers that I know have chosen to go into it. Many of them have degrees, and other career options but have chosen farming as a way of life. Which is lovely for them, but I don't think I'm responsible for keeping them in business any more than they should be buying my DHs products to keep him in business.

However, I do believe in supporting local business, and I believe in animal rights. It's more a case of rejecting the big supermarkets unfairness with their milk prices, and rejecting the massive factory farms for me. It's about paying a fair price for a fair product.

OP posts:
cozietoesie · 25/04/2015 12:58

PS - as an example of which, I give you (flavoured) Weetabix drink in a (plastic) bottle.

I was slack-jawed when I saw the advert.