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Rollercoaster prices confirmed by Which ?
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I shall be glad when the moany tales I hear at 5.45am will be replaced with progressive ones!
So much to read, so little time.
So much to read, so little time.
I suspect that the milk gets taken away from farms then gets decided at the bottling plant which tanks get filtered etc.
Some processors supply supermarkets eg Arla supplies Aldi, ASDA, Morrisons. Muller supplies Lidl, Some supermarkets buy direct from farmers eg Waitrose, Sainsbury's. Tesco..
These suppliers are for supermarket own brand milk. Brands such as Cravendale and Yeo Valley will be sold at different price points in supermarkets. It depends on the deal they get from the producer.
Arla bought Yeo Valley Dairies Ltd in 2018, so the Yeo Valley brand organic milk, butter, spreads and cheese come from Arla and the organic cream, ice cream and other new products are still produced by Yeo Valley.
There are also milk delivery companies eg milk&more which work with farmers or co-operatives and individual farms which process and sell milk locally eg farm shop, village shop, local delivery and milk vending machines.
There are a lot of variables which determine the price the farmer gets. for milk, including whether organic/not, Channel Islands cows/not, quantity they're able to supply. Hooking up with a big boy might suit some farmers because they get access to nutritional experts and dairy yield software. Some farmers might make more selling locally. Often, farmers make more money from selling cheese, butter, cream, yogurt, ice cream, flavoured milk and kefir than they do from plain milk.
Cravendale is often one of the cheapest fresh milks. UHT milk in cartons can be cheap too, especially if on offer. Also, if the processor supplies several supermarkets eg Arla, just buy the cheapest as it's the same milk (albeit skimmed, semi-skimmed or whole).
I switched to Waitrose Duchy from Abel & Cole and Riverford, because the milk is processed from 26 farms in their own dairy in the West Country, has won a Compassion in World Farming dairy award every year since 2011 and because it's cheaper.
Bog standard farm assured milk must come from cows which spend 120 days a year on grass. Waitrose organic cows spend averagely 208 days per year on grass. Hopefully the milk is more nutritious.
Pro-Europeans will be fine with milk from Arla (Danish-owned) or Muller (German-owned ) bought in Aldi and Lidl (German-owned) especially, as well as Yeo Valley (Arla). Leavers will have to avoid milk from Aldi, ASDA, Lidl, Morrisons. British milk, but profits going to European companies.