Ros Rimmer of Rostons Land & property Agents, observed Diary Farmers falling into a state of panic last Friday following a comment in the press that if production continued to increase month on month over the next three months the UK as a whole could come close to hitting quota for the first time in 10 years.
Ros stated the statement had literally frightened farmers into purchasing quota to cover production prices rising from 0.15ppl to 0.30ppl, DairyCo released a statement shortly after stating that it is highly unlikely that production will rise to a level close to the quota limit. After spending time studying historic figures Ros stated that “even if in the next 3 months left in the quota year we met the highest production we have for those three months in the last 10 years and with an estimated butterfat adjustment that the UK would still be approximately 47 production days under quota.
With Milk Quota’s due to end in 2015 (i.e. this time next year) Ros believes it is very unlikely that the UK will hit quota again.