Kategorie: News

In Great Britain the supermarket chain Co-op is introducing a ‘freeze me’ message to its own brand milk products, in a bid to cut down on 70000 tonnes of milk wasted a year. A recent survey shows that two-thirds (66%) of UK adults don’t freeze milk at home, 31 per cent of UK adults didn’t’ know you can freeze milk and of these 34 per cent say that now they do they will start freezing it. The new on-pack message from Co-op will read: “Don’t waste me, freeze me, in a suitable, clean container, then defrost in the fridge, use within 24 hours.” The new messaging will appear across all Co-op own brand milk products from September 2022.

In the United Kingdom dairy farmers must now be able to show that they are proactively avoiding the risk of milk contamination with chlorate residues. The maximum residue limit (MRL) for liquid milk (raw or pasteurised) is set at 0.1mg/kg. The MRL for foods intended for infants and young children is still set at 0.01mg/kg. Compliance with MRLs will be checked by the Health and Safety Executive.

Ireland had in December 2021 a number of 1.505 million dairy cows. To compare: in December 1984, around the start of the milk quota system, Ireland had 1.523 dairy cows.

In Ireland in 2022 the number of farms that takes part in an official milk recording program has increased 12 percent and the number of cows in a milk recording program has increased 10.6 percent. Over 50 percent of the Irish dairy farms joins an official milk recording program.

The Irish government has decided that in 2030 the agriculture sector has to have cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent compared to 2018. In 2021 the emissions from the agriculture sector increased three percent compared to 2020.

In Ukrain during the first three months of the war, dairy farms lost only at least 50 thousand dairy cows. This was announced by the General Director of the Ukrainian Association of Milk Producers. Animals died not only as a result of active hostilities, but also due to a number of restrictions on feeding, housing and veterinarian care. The estimated number of dead animals in the hit regions is 92 thousand head of cattle, as well as 42 thousand sheep and goats, 258 thousand pigs and more than 5,700 thousand birds. Ten of 24 regions that were or still are in the zone of hostilities and occupation supplied 42 percent of milk for processing. In total, about 800 industrial dairy farms were affected by the war.

In the EU more than 50000 people have signed a petition from Proveg asking the European Commission to serve also plant based milk under the EU milk scheme.

The France headquartered stock market listed dairy Danone will sell to Mengniu the 25 percent stake the company holds in Yashili and the 20 percent stake it holds in the Inner Mongolia Dairy Joint Venture. In parallel, Danone will acquire from Yashili 100 percent of Dumex Baby Food Co Ltd, a Chinese manufacturer of Infant Milk Formula products. The completion of these transactions will lead to the conclusion of the partnership Danone held with Mengniu over the last few years, following the disposal of Danone’s 9.8 percent minority stake in Mengniu in 2021.

In Germany in June compared to May 2022 the raw material or compound value of milk at farm decreased 0.8 eurocent to 65.8 eurocent per kilogram milk with 4.0 percent fat and 3.4 percent protein (exclusive VAT). This is 28.3 eurocent more than in the same month one year before. The highest future price of milk for the next 18 months on the Kieler Börsenmilchwert European Energy Exchange is the price for June 2022 at 64.1 eurocent. The lowest future price is the price for March 2023 at 57.4 eurocent.

In Germany the eastern state Brandenburg is paying a premium for cattle that from May till November (this year from July till November) has entrance to pasture. The premium is available for dairy cattle as well for beef cattle. Regular farms can get a premium of 60 euro per livestock unit and organic farms 50 euro per livestock unit. Organic farms get less because they have already to give the cattle entrance to pasture.

In Germany the dairy cooperative Hochwald has opened a new dairy plant three years after construction officially started and after an investment of 200 million euro. In the plant around 250 employees will turn 800 million kilogrammes of milk per year into milk products, such as long-life milk, long-life cream, long-life milkshakes and condensed milk. On the 21.5 hectare property, around 60000 square metres of floor space have been created and the 17 bottling plants can produce up to 1.4 billion packages per year. In the plant is milk processed from 1200 member farms of the total 2300 members farms of Hochwald.

In Germany in the southern state Bavaria the private dairy Allgäuer Hof Milch will close one of its two sites where cheese is produced and will fire half of its 74 employees because of the increased energy prices. Allgäuer Hof Milch will let produce the cheese else. Allgäuer Hof Milch is mainly processing hay milk.

In Germany, the Holland headquartered dairy cooperative Royal FrieslandCampina has sold a part of its German consumer business to Unternehmensgruppe Theo Müller. The sale includes the brands Landliebe, Tuffi, Südmilch, Puddis, Mondelice, various private labels in the white dairy range produced by FrieslandCampina in Germany, the foodservice brand Gastro, as well as the production facilities, warehouses and distribution centres in Heilbronn, Cologne, and Schefflenz. RFC will in Germany continue with its international brands like Chocomel and Valess, its Professional business, and some private label brands produced abroad, including cheese and cream spray cans. According to RFC the membership of the cooperative remains unchanged for the German members. RFC will continue to collect and process the milk from its German member dairy farmers. Unternehmensgruppe Theo Müller will take over the supplier contracts of the German non-member dairy farmers.

In Holland thousands of farmers with tractors have been demonstrating against the announce Dutch government’s policy to decrease nitrogen emissions. Farmers with tractors blocked highways, distribution centres of supermarkets, incinerators, et cetera.

In the Netherlands, an analysis by Royal GD shows a link between calf mortality and the status for the diseases and IBR (Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis), BVD (Bovine Virus Diarrhoea), Salmonella and Paratuberculosis. In 2021, the mortality of calves during the first days after birth was on average 6.7 percent on farms that had the status free or unsuspected for all four diseases. This was 7.7 percent on farms that had a favourable status for no or only one disease. In Holland the use of antibiotics on dairy farms has in 2021 decreased 2.3 percent to 2.3 day doses per cow. The number of day doses per cow is based on the daily dose, the amount of active substance administered of a particular antibiotic that is active for one day. The average day doses per cow is then calculated by adding up all the daily doses and dividing by the average number of cows present in that particular year.

The Holland headquartered dairy cooperative Royal FrieslandCampina has got a fine of 75000 euro from a Dutch court because of exceeding discharge standards in 2020.

The Holland headquartered dairy cooperative Royal FrieslandCampina has from 2015 till 2021 on own locations lowered the emission of greenhouse gasses 28 percent, while emissions on member farms decreased 12.5 percent.

The Holland headquartered dairy cooperative Royal FrieslandCampina lost between July 2021 and July 2022 members that have withdrawn their membership.

In Holland in 2021 dairy cows and their youngstock excreted 273.0 million kilograms of nitrogen last year, 4.7 percent less than in 2020. However: the excretion of phosphate was 84.9 million kilograms which was 0.5 million kilograms more than in 2020.

In the United Kingdom the Denmark headquartered dairy cooperative Arla has warned that a chronic shortage of suitably-qualified farm workers is already reducing production of nutritious dairy products and contributing to food price inflation, a situation that will get worse unless urgent action is taken. In a survey answered by 541 of Arla’s 2100 UK Arla members 80 percent of farmers looking for workers have received ‘very few’ or ‘zero’ applications from people with the right experience or qualifications. A combination of the end of free movement of workers from the EU, the aftermath of the pandemic, and a host of other factors mean that more than three-fifths (61.3%) of farmers are finding it more difficult to recruit now than in 2019. In Arla’s survey a small but significant number of farmers say they have already reduced output by cutting the number of milkings (4.3%) and/or reduced the size of their herd (6.0%) due to staff shortages. Many more say they will take these steps (6.9% and 6.8% respectively) or leave farming altogether (11.9%) in the next year if nothing changes. Arla’s research covered around a quarter of all the cooperative’s farmers in the UK, who in total make up around 30% of all dairy farmers. It was conducted during May 2022.