I was chatting to a dairy farmer the other day and told him about the survey we are running on this site. We had a very good discussion about milk related matters. Did you know that it takes about 12 litres of milk to make a kg of milk solids? So if the farmer is receiving say $5.10 a kg of butterfat the farmer is getting about 43 cents a litre for milk. That means the farmers share of the price of a 2 litre bottle of milk is 86 cents. The rest is divided amongst the dairy company to tanker the milk to the factory and process it, to the distributors who pick up the milk at the factory and deliver it to the retail stores, and the retailers. When I asked him who is making the most, he said, “well some retailers are selling 2 litres for between $2.50 and $2.80, and making money. Most retailers are selling milk at around $3.40. What does that tell you?” I think his point was that some retailers are creaming it… or milking it… or however you want to describe it.
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Jun