MILK OUTPUT IN U.K.

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28784, 3 January 1959, Page 15

MILK OUTPUT IN U.K.

Demand Exceeds Supply

(N.Z. Press. Association —Copyrtoht; LONDON, December 30. Nothing in recent years has so confounded agricultural prophets as milk, says the agricultural correspondent of “The Times.” Less than two years ago there were warnings that the British dairy farmer was in danger of being engulfed in a sea of his own production. Those regions where expansion has been smallest were loudly calling for producer quotas and the two-tier price system. Today the Milk Marketing Board finds itself faced with a situation in which a rising liquid consumption is confronted with a temporary fall in production and the laboriously built up demand for Home dairy products looks like remaining unsatisfied for want of raw material. Meanwhile those producers who [have not been seduced into the beef market find, so far from their prices being cut, a bonus coming [to them every , month. For December it was 5d a gallon on the announced provisional price. In fact the movement of milk producers into other enterprises, jsuch as beef, has been small but .it may well be that the stability •of the last 20 years has gone for ;the time being, the correspondent Isays. Since the summer drought of 1955 British milk supplies had been moving steadily upward. The last part of the rise was actually due to falling profitability since farmers were increasing their output to maintain their income as the margin a gallon ! declined. This last summer saw la change and the output over the I six months from April to Septem- | ber fell by 28m gallons. Over (the country as a whole the decline lin output was a mere 2 per cent., though in some areas it was [as hight as 5. The curve of the i decline has since steepened. Winter Output

| The output during the six i winter months is expected by the j board to be 90m gallons below : last winter. Meanwhile efforts ! by the board and trade to increase the sales of milk and fresh cream ' (stimulated by the fall in liquid demand during 1956-57) seems to have met with''■a good deal of success. The liquid consumption forecast,for 1958-59 is 13m gallons higher than last year’s and fresh cream sales, though still below pre-war, are half as much again as three years ago. Milk for manufacture is now commanding a much higher priqe, with the result that the pool price on which producers are paid has also risen. Nevertheless producers’ gross receipts will be £6m less than they would have been had production been up to the March esti-

mate, and it may be added that a developing and promising market in British cheese and butter has to some extent been jeopardised.