First Milk is to increase the price it pays its dairy farmers following “robust” conversations with retailers.

Farmers supplying First Milk’s milk-for-cheese pool will receive an initial 1p per litre increase on 1 November and a further 0.75ppl increase a month later.

Those supplying milk into its balancing pool will receive a 0.65ppl increase on 1 December.

The increase for balancing pool farmers will add to a previously announced 0.5ppl increase from today, and a 0.75ppl rise scheduled for 1 November.

After the hikes, farmers in both groups will pocket 28ppl for their milk.

The Scottish dairy giant said the increases were a result of the company taking a “forward view” on where prices were going, having some robust conversations with customers and identifying further business efficiencies.

First Milk said it knew feed costs were rocketing, silage had been poor in most parts of the country and farms were looking at a hard winter.

“The job is never done for us on squeezing to get more returns for our farmers,” said chairman Bill Mustoe.

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