Dairy farmers across Lincolnshire struggle with rising costs
Many milk producers are currently making a loss
Dairy farmers across Lincolnshire are warning milk supply could be threatened if they aren’t paid more.
The crisis in Ukraine is thought to have led to rising fuel, fertiliser and feed costs - causing farms to spend more than they are making.
The UK’s largest dairy company Arla last week said supermarket milk prices need to rise in order to avoid supply issues.
The average price to produce a litre of milk has risen from 28 pence a year ago to 44 pence in 2022.
We spoke to Adam Duguid Owner of Home Farm Dairy at Caenby Corner near Gainsborough who told us about the impact on the dairy industry:
"It's why you can see even now in the spring which is normally a time of high dairy production, milk production is being scaled back and milk volumes are dropping."
"The main impact of costs on us are increased feed costs and increased energy costs and these are the 2 major areas".
"These have pushed up the cost of producing milk".
"We do graze our cattle so a lot of the feed they're getting is from grass and is also from maize which we produce on the farm".
"Then again the price of grass and maize is also going up because fertiliser on that, seed prices have gone up".
"So everything on that "knocks on".