I’m afraid we are writing today to inform you of another price increase. We appreciate this is never welcome news and we had hoped that our previous increase would have sufficed for some time. However, with yet more increases in production costs our milk sales are sadly unsustainable. We have tried our best to keep our prices competitive but, for a small dairy on a tenanted farm and trying to farm with little environmental impact, this is very difficult.
We have worked very hard at Brays Farm to set up Nutfield Dairy as first-generation farmers and we are determined to create a successful business here. Liquid milk is very difficult to make profitable, as we are adding little value to the product and it is very expensive to produce and process, however we are trying our best to continue to offer you our fresh milk delivery service.
On Monday 22nd August our price per litre of milk will increase to £2.30 delivered. This is obviously a very large jump but it reflects the true cost of production. Supermarket milk is always going to be cheaper but we are not only offering a better tasting product, it is also locally produced from animals that you can be confident have the best life we can give them. They graze the fields for as much of the year as possible and we only milk them once a day, so they are not being pushed to produce huge amounts.
Next Summer we hope to have an open day so you can see what we do here at Brays. Most of our cows are a breed called Dairy Shorthorn, they are an old native breed and are usually red and white as opposed to the more common black and white Holstein. They have a higher quality of milk and will happily graze outside for more of the year.
Our processing rooms are cabins which we have converted to meet modern hygiene standards. We have made big investments in bottling equipment, milk vats, bottle washer, pasteuriser etc. which are housed in the processing rooms. As well as the initial investment these machines are very costly to run, particularly with energy costs continuing to rise.
Whether or not you feel you can continue using our services, we are very grateful for the support you have given us and we hope you understand our reasoning for this price change.
Yours Sincerely,
Matt & Betsie
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