So how much would you pay for milk?

[IWanders]

All the articles on the news is making me think, if the supermarkets put the price of milk up how much would you be happy to pay? I don't like the thought of harming our dairy industry and making more families struggle.

Personally I would be happy as long as milk didn't go above say £3.50 on 6 pints which is the size I buy.

It would mean having to cut back on other things to compensate but I am curious as to how much others think milk should cost?

I don't understand this milk thing. Can't the farmers go on milk strike? Their minimum delivery price is 32 p per litre or whatever and if the milk processors don't like it it all goes down the drain.

I don't actually know how much I pay for milk - I just buy it because I need it. I suspect the demand for milk is fairly inelastic so the farmers should be able to get the price they want - the trouble is the supermarkets use milk as a signal of their general cheapness. Which is fine but shouldn't that be using their own margin rather than the farmers' margin?

I pay 50p a pint and get it delivered in glass bottles to my door four days a week. I know it costs less to buy in a supermarket, but I want the convenience and like to support the local farmer I buy it from. And I don't have a plastic bottle mountain in my kitchen each week either.

Well, breastmilk is about 130euro/litre

info.babymilkaction.org/news/campaignblog070310

A pound a pint sounds like an absolute bargain to me I have no idea how much milk costs

Farmers should just refuse to sell below a certain price. Or start a bidding war. Not that I approve of those but something has to be done. I wouldn't mind paying a bit above the supermarket price. We get milk delivered but they only deliver three times a week now. Which is a bit of a pain. I think it's 46p a pint.

so you think farmers should just pour it down the drain? (which incidentally it is illegal to do).

and feed their cows, milk them, pay their staff and other bills with no income?

This is the ultimate problem - they have us over a barrell, as milk is a perishable product and we only have very limited storage on farm.

And anyway, they will just import lower quality cheap milk from poland or somewhere else in the EU, and we would be shooting ourselves in the foot.

I don't actually think the price needs to increase much, if anything, but the supermarkets and other retailers need to be prepeared to take less of a cut, simply for stocking and selling the product.

I pay £7.80 for 16 pints to be delivered per week from a local dairy, I know I can get it much cheaper from the supermarket, I have no idea how my £7.80 is divided tho.

I would happily pay more if it meant farmers getting a fair deal. We have none of the 'fair' retailers in my town (Waitrose, M&S, Tesco). I get my milk delivered by milk&more who deliver consistently late and incorrect. (Currently I have six pints of skimmed milk in my fridge when I should have two )

I pay 55p a pint from our local farm. I would pay more for it.

I know its easy to say from my middle class position of security, but some things cost what they cost - milk is one of them - and I would rather pay more for milk than drink something imported from Poland. Farmers going out of business in this country will ultimately lead to higher costs for us all. If we have no dairy farmers left then we will be forced to import all our milk and prices would ultimately rise.

Another example of one of the great untruths we were encouraged to believe throughout the noughties. Inflation was always claimed to be around the 2.5% mark, but it was probably much much higher.

Supermarkets could also help their producers (particularly the smaller producers) by paying on shorter payment terms. Its one thing to have 90 day payment terms to a company the size of Pepsi, but to a small dairy farmer, the longer the wait, the harder it is for them.

No, as the market is working perfectly as it should. Farmers who have a decent sized heard and those who have moved with the times are making a profit still. What we don't need to be doing is subsidising a loss making enterprise with only 50 or 60 cows like the french would do. The reason milk is so cheap is overproduction in the market.

I would pay extra. Anyone who prefers to buy Fair Trade should see it in the same way.

But you never see the supermarkets take a small cut in profits to ensure the farmers get a fair deal, it is always the consumer who has to pay the difference.

I would like to boycott the big supermarkets as much as possible but it is getting harder to do this on a budget.

I would be more than happy to pay more. Is criminal what the supermarkets are doing though. They should take the hit.

Milk prices here are controlled by the government. The vast majority of our milk is locally produced and processed, and costs 60p a pint. I have no problem with paying this, in order to support local dairy farmers. I shouldn't think they're making a fortune even with milk at that price.

I would be happy to pay more for milk but only if i knew that the difference was going to farmers. I don't understand why the NFU hasn't started a fair trade style campaign for British farmers long before now. I buy British simply because i know first hand that we have the best animal welfare legislation in the world. I expect it to be more expensive because, more room, and medical treatment cost the producer.

I would pay more so that UK farmers get a fair price. I want to buy UK milk, with the UK's higher standards of animal welfare.
I'm already paying 66p per pint to have it delivered.

Milk is already so cheap, I'm sure no one would object to paying a little more so that the dairy farmers can actually survive on their profits. I've already started boycotting buying milk fro supermarkets in protest. Although being lactose intolerant, I don't really have much of a choice .

Yes, my first though was why don't all those supermarkets who like to promote themselves as 'supporting local farmers' just pay them properly in the first place.

I'd also like to boycott the supermarkets, but it's hard work with little ones.

I agree with midnight, what pisses me off is that the supermarkets will use this an excuse to add extra onto the price and make more profit

I pay about 1.67/£1.70 for a large/4 pint bottle of organic milk. I think that is pretty cheap. Recently they had a 2 for £3 offer in Tescos. I think the farmers have a point.

I honestly don't notice the price of milk, just as I know it is quite cheap so I don't look. I meant I notice how much organic is compared with normal, but it's just something I put in the trolley and don't think about it, as we need 8 pints + a week whatever. I do compare prices of just about everything else, look out for good offers and buy a lot of non-branded stuff where I think it is good value.

I know what the price of the weekly shop is from week to week but I've no idea of the cost of any individual items off the top of my head.

My family were dairy farmers and the farm was wound up after my grandmother passed away in 2002. Not much money was made. Farming is a lot tougher than anyone else realises. The animals need to be tended to no matter what and labour is very expensive. My grandmother was up at 4am and milking the cows until two weeks before she died. She was wealthy but that was from her other businesses. The farm was her passion and she loved her cows.

I think there needs to be a complete rethink. Rather than increase prices I think there should be a review to see if the costs borne by farmers can be decreased. In my grandmothers case the health safety regulations and tax on labour had a very serious impact on profitability.

I think we pay £1 something for a litre of organic milk. We always try and buy Yeo Valley or Duchy so we know the farmers are getting a fair price. It would be nice if ALL farmers could get a fair price for their products. It almost seems that sometimes we expect farmers to do their job for nothing - why shouldn't they make a bit of money? I'd happily pay more if it meant that the British dairy industry could keep going and maintain high standards of animal welfare.

I don't understand why the NFU hasn't started a fair trade style campaign for British farmers long before now.

I would pay more for "fair Trade" milk, but only if it was available just as conveniently (in my local shops and the supermarkets I get deliveries from) because I am lazy.

Do we know if farmers gets paid better for organic milk?

I assume they get paid more, because it's more difficult or time consuming or something to produce, but do they get paid any better proportionally?

The supermarkets have been acting immorally on this one. Farmers are noy having profits hit, they are having to run at a loss. I would rather buy local than have it shipped in from say the Netherlands. Supermarkets can manage to promote carrots from this county and cheese from that, so why not clearly label milk?