Milking the recession???

Unlike the UK government, the Irish are tackling the recession by trying to reduce government spending. This means there's more Irish cheese on the market because there's less money to keep it in storage to produce "mature" cheese.
With the Irish and UK market having an oversupply of cheese there's been downwards pressure on the farm milk price.
Add to that the increase in the dairy herd on New Zealand's south island and the reduction in demand for dairy products from China.
That all adds together to mean that farm prices are down to between 20-24p a litre at a time when costs are going up. Complying with NVZs (Nitrate Vulnerable Zone regulations) are increasing expenditure for dairy farmers.
Experts say that the situation should sort itself out in the next 6 to 8 months as more UK producers give up the struggle or decide that investing for the future isn't worthwhile. Whether in the future we'll have the capacity to produce the milk we need is another matter. But we can always get powdered from New Zealand.
And the price of milk at the supermarkets? Tesco and Sainsbury are both currently charging 86p for 2 pints. That's the equivalent of just under 76p per litre!