Buoyant milk year – despite challenging weather

• Good showing for UK dairy farmers

• Growing momentum for organic milk

• Big range in farm performance levels

The last milk year was positive for dairy producers, with continued improvements in cow health and growing momentum in the organic milk sector, according to the latest annual report from Kingshay Dairy Costings.

Although the dreadful weather over the summer of 2024 saw yields from forage drop sharply, the reasonably high milk price and lower feed costs meant margins remained firm.

In fact, given the most favourable milk price: feed price ratio since 2001, the average margin over purchased feed was the strongest for a very long time – the only exception being the spike in milk prices during 2022.

“When it comes to margin over purchased feed (MOPF), we are still seeing large ranges, even within the same production systems, where groups of herds have similar goals,” says Kingshay farm services specialist Emma Puddy.

Performance range

“Housing-focused, all-year-round calving herds had the highest MOPF per cow at £2,937/cow, and the highest was achieved by the low to moderate-yielding organic herds at 41.15ppl.”

That said, data from 1,064 conventional herds and 98 organic herds, suggests a wide variation between the top and bottom quartile within each production system.

Organic herds made a strong showing years, with the milk price reaching a record high of 53.17ppl in March 2025. Milk from forage remains a key strength, with 44% of milk derived from forage compared to below 30% for conventional producers.

“It seems milk from forage is still very strongly linked to MOPF, with conventional herds in the top 10% for milk from forage achieving a margin that was 20% higher per cow and 14% higher per litre,” says Mrs Puddy.

Health and fertility

Kingshay is an independent dairy specialist based on a commercial dairy farm in Somerset. It specialises in providing independent and practical support to farmers and the wider industry, based on its own trials and investigations.

Given the higher milk prices, the cost of poor health and fertility increased, both on a per-case and per-herd basis.  All reported health indicators saw year-on-year improvements.

Mastitis dropped to 24 cases per 100 cows (down by two), and lameness declined from 37 to 34 cases per 100 cows. But fertility saw a bit of a slide – most likely due to poor-quality forage caused by challenging weather.

Comparisons

Calving intervals extended by a day to 394 days, and days to first service crept up by two days to 72. The age of cows at exit is steadily declining, but the proportion of selected versus forced culls has increased again, year-on-year.

“The best way for a farm business to see where they are successful and where they could improve is by putting their figures side-by-side with other producers in similar systems,” says Mrs Puddy.

“We hope that by publishing this report we can help farmers to do exactly that, and to find ways to continue the positive trends we’ve seen.”

The full report can be downloaded at www.kingshay.co.uk.