Why is butter so expensive?

[hc4361]

Fresh milk is very cheap in real terms, I pay £1.74 for 6 pints (29p a pint).

So why is butter at its most expensive?

[heathfield]

Last year drought in the UK and Europe reduced pasture and cereal production, making feeding animals more expensive. Much milk was diverted from butter to cheese-making. (See how many new cheeses there are on offer these days?). Instead of having a butter mountain, EU production of butter only just met consumer demand, and this meant suppliers could charge more.
Interestingly, regarding feedstuffs, Anchor butter used to say on the packet that their cows were 'fed on grass the whole year round.' This means the price for Anchor butter shouldn't have gone up, but it has. It's risen in line with prices for European butter, and, curiously, the 'grass' message is no longer printed on the packs. Hmmm.

[boxtops]

Your milk is really cheap hc - we use Cravendale (as we don't use much, and it lasts ages) and that's about £1.39 a litre!

[ladybirder]

Could it be because some farmers are now keeping their cows in shed 24/7 and they don't get fed on grass anymore heathfield?

[hc4361]

Thanks for that, Heathfield.

Boxtops, all the big supermarkets are selling own label 6 pinters for about £1.74.
Did you know milk freezes perfectly well and improves the appearance and flavour of skimmed and semi-skimmed milk in my opinion. No idea why though.

[starone]

Yes hc, I have frozen milk, but I have wondered how long it will stay fresh when taken from the freezer?

[hc4361]

Starbuckone, I find if frozen on the day of purchase it keeps just as long as non-frozen milk, although I freeze it in smaller quantities because it takes so long to thaw out.
If I'm going to be home alone for any length of time I divide my 6 pinter in to 3 x 2 pint portions and freeze two.

[johnny37]

For anyone who's interestest, Iceland sell their 4-pint bottles for £1. Curiously, their 6-pint bottles work out dearer (not sure of the price).

[mike11111]

I have noticed that too. You can get 2 x 4 pints for roughly the same price as 1 x 6 pints.

[funnygirl]

Cravendales has a funny taste! Has anyone noticed this?

[heathfield]

Ladybird - If you think of the the ice and snow of the 2009/10 and 2010/11 winters, farmers were either forced to keep and feed their cattle indoors, or provide fodder in the fields, for far longer than has been usual in recent years.

[ladybirder]

Actually heathfield I wasn't. I happened to listen to Farming Today I think it's called, early one morning last week. A farmer was being interviewed who now keeps all his cattle indoors permanently in massive sheds all year round. I can't remember what they are fed on but there is sand on the floor for them to sleep on and the sides of the sheds are open to the elements so there is plenty of air for them. It's been discussed in the news quite a bit over the last couple of years. There will be plenty of people on here who will know more about it than me. It just struck me when you said about not being fed on grass that it could mean animals raised under these conditions.

[boxtops]

Heard that ladybirder, it was interesting.

I don't have room in my freezer for milk, and since we only live over the road from the supermarket, it's not worth stocking up.

[mike11111]

I can remember from when I was a child that half a pound of Lurpak cost 1/6. For the same price you could buy 3 -4 pints of milk, so today's prices are not really that much different. OK, you can get 4 pints of milk for £1 at certain places, but if bought pint for pint you are looking at £2, so really butter is relatively cheaper.

[devadolly]

Part of the answer is that liquid milk is sold as a loss-leader by the supermarkets and they pay a spot price to the producer that is no higher than (and often lower than) the price of production. Milk that goes to be processed is bought at a market price. The more dairy farms that go out of production in GB the more expensive food will become.

[mike11111]

I think that Deva has got it right. No way can these stores be making a profit on these items.

[devadolly]

Heathfield, dairy cows are always inside during the winter in this country, not entirely because of the cold etc but because of the adverse effect they would have on the land during the dormant season. If they were allowed to poach what bit of grass there was, the pastures would be ruined for the following year and would not be able to support the cows at all. The lovely green fields would be rank with ruts/nettles/ragwort and bare patches of dust (or mud depending on how much rain there was!).

[naomi24]

Don't know - but it's worth paying for.

[gingejbee]

Both Aldi and Lidl have 4 pints of British fresh milk for £1. Milk is on a short list of "known value items", the prices of which are kept at "rock-bottom" to attract customers.

[theprof]

heathfield and ladybirder, both your comments are very pertinent but I'm afraid that you may be missing a very important point here.

Anchor butter is imported into the UK from New Zealand. It is not a UK product. The butter continues to be produced by cows that are only fed on grass, but the point is that this grass is available "fresh" 365 days of the year due to the climate in that part of New Zealand.

Ice, snow and "Winter" as we know them in the UK, do not occur in the pastureland in New Zealand. There are no need for cowsheds to protect the animals from the elements and also there is no need for fodder. In fact, all New Zealand butter regardless of whether it is the Anchor brand or not, is produced from cows that feed on nothing but fresh grass.

Arla Foods who import and distribute Anchor butter in the UK, have unjustifiably raised the price of the product in line with EU produced butter. As heathfield implies, the cost of Anchor butter should not have increased. Having said that, it would have been very difficult for supermarkets to maintain parity if they continued to sell Anchor butter at substantially less than EU butter and I'd be the first to agree that demand for Anchor butter would outstrip import levels resulting in major problems.

[RATTER15]

I dont think butter is expensive!