Dragon's Den's star Deborah Meaden slams mega dairy 'treadmill'

By Ben Bouckley

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Milk prices Dairy farmers Cattle Milk

Dragon's Den's star Deborah Meaden slams mega dairy 'treadmill'
Dragons' Den entrepreneur Deborah Meaden has hit out at mega dairies in a new report, where she and her co-contributors said they tied US dairy farmers to a "treadmill of seeking ever-greater yields and economies of scale".

Television star Meaden (pictured) was a key contributor to World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) briefing published on Monday entitled Weighing-up the Economics of Dairy Farms.

The paper concluded that pressure applied to farmers by UK retailers to squeeze milk prices led to a "highly inequitable distribution of income within the dairy supply chain, and placed enormous pressure on farmers to reduce production costs to stay afloat".

In Australia and New Zealand, Meaden and her co-contributors noted, dairy farmers mde healthy profits from low-yielding cows because of low costs associated with keeping animals within a pasture-based system.

"As this model works on low costs, the margin made on each litre of milk can be quite high, even at relatively low milk prices,"​ they wrote.

Greater yield 'treadmill'

This was contrary to large-scale US production, the WSPA report said, where "somefarmers now consider that the trade‑off between increased yield and cow health and survival is no longer profitable"

Moreover, although US mega-dairies can make large profits when milk prices are favourable, they were vulnerable to equally large losses ('boom or bust') when prices fell, the report said.

The authors conducted an economic analysis of a hypothetical 8,000 cow mega-dairy in the UK, which they said demonstrated that such a herd would be just as vulnerable to fluctuations in the market and difficult supermarket negotations as every other dairy farm in the country.

Associated economies of scale would not be sufficient for the dairy to survive at world market prices, so it would have to compete directly with traditional farms for premium liquid milk and branded dairy products. But success here would mean it displaced up to 100 existing family farms, said the report.

Small farm efficiency

However, real farm data from UK and US farms showed that small farms could be more "efficient and resilient"​ that larger concerns, said the WSPA report, especially when they made use of natural grazing to cut costs.

"Whilst large herds may be able to achieve a greater herd margin, smaller farms often achieve a higher margin for each cow and each litre of milk produced."

High production breeding meant animals needed very high energy levels to remain productive - with feed 30 per cent of production cost on most farms - but the authors noted that grass was the chepest feed available.

"There is potential for farmers to achieve higher returns by keeping robust cows on pasture. When we take into account the longevity of robust cows, their ability to get pregnant, calve more regularly and produce calves of value for beef, any reduction in milk yields can be more than offset," ​they wrote.

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