German dairy farmers halt supplies

In a drastic move against what the German dairy farmers consider ridiculously low prices for their produce up to 80% of them have called a halt to supplying milk to the processing plants. Romuald Schaber, leader of the Bund Deutscher Milchviehhalter, expects the strike to last up to ten days. While retailers do not expect a shortage of fresh milk and dairy products on their shelves, Schaber had warned hospitals and retirement homes to stockpile supplies.

Farmers are demanding an increase of the price per liter from the current rate of app. €0.30 to at least €0.43. The EU is planning to increase the output while depressing the market price at the same time, claiming the need to respond to the growing demand, especially on the Asian market.

I can imagine people lining up at the "supermarket" (always use quotes when referring to the latter in Germany) at 7am to get milk?

Rumor has it we live in a free market where supply and demand dictate prices.

The current price of oil and now this would suggest this is far from the truth.

Yeah, and then there's the alien abductions and 9.11. truth, too.

Doesn't the EU have a milk lake? Can't they just supply milk from the milk lake while the farmer's strike?

Apparently welsh divers went into the milk lake to examine the dam. They found leaks in it

You can imagine Germans "Lining up"? That's quite an imagination you've got there!

No milk!! Dammit, I'll just have to have a beer with my breakfast

Shouldn't that be on the 'you know you're assimilated when...' thread?

Before potatoes and coffee took over rural breakfast tables beer and pumpernickel bread were the main ingredients of at least one daily meal.
recipe (German)

250 g day old brown bread
2 liters dark beer
1 teaspoon caraway
1 pinch ginger
1 pinch cinnamon
butter
sugar

Crumble the bread, pour the beer over it, let soak for 30 minutes.
Add the spices, bring to a boil until the bread dissolves
Pour through a sieve, reheat, add butter and sugar and serve

Too much work so early in the day, I'll take it straight from the bottle.

Has anyone tried that Biersuppe? It sounds kind of awful.

Well, i still remember the "black market" for powdered milk back in 1986...

The association of milk farmers who are withholding milk represent only about one-third of Germany's 100K dairy farmers. They're feeding their milk to the calves instead of selling it to dairies at below cost. Retailers won't be short of milk because the dairies can source the milk from farmers still delivering. If necessary, they can also bring it in from outside Germany.

Help me out here, butter comes from where?

- Ireland, Kerrygold is the only one worth using.

From the EU-Butterberg we have been hearing about since the 1970s. Some of the recipes even listed milk as an ingredient.
P.S. Probably the original recipe called for honey and lard anyway.

...or Killeshandra.

Well, I guess I can always buy a cow.

Bringing it in may not be as easy as you think, especially as Germany is Europes biggest milk producer so a lot of EU countries rely on supplies from Germany. It seems this milk strike thing is spreading to other EU countries soon. See the link for a bit of further info. http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3366941,00.html

Still, I have at least 6 farms within walking distance that I can source from though it would be straight from the udder.

Not quite, they put it through the centrifuge first. But it still could be body-warm if you're quick enough. Raw cow milk is an acquired taste but if you are patient enough to let it settle you can skim off the delightful top-milk and use it for oatmeal.

Plus you get the added excitement of the possibility of catching TB.

Actually, it is quite. The farmer here that supplies my neighbour with milk to make his own cheese hand milks for him so, quite, it is straight from the cows udder

Seriously I don't understand the big sh*t deal. I paid a whole hell of a lot more for milk in America. Im fine paying .13 more.

Just been reading my paper on the way to work. Apparently most european farmers are not supplying German dairies in support and production is lowered in Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands. So things may well start to get worse. That said, my local Rewe had plenty of milk today (it had none earlier in the week - though this could just be that stock management there is appalling).

The big deal is that in this country nobody gives a fat fark about how much you or me would or wouldn't like to pay for milk. Prices are fixed by the dairies and the big industrial milk consumers, and it is certainly not for the benefit of the farmers. I heard once that somewhere in the US the chains raised the price of milk some 3c per gallon. Nobody bought milk there for a week or so and then the price went back down. Do you imagine something like this happening here (the other way around of course, i.e. support of the farmers by accepting price increases)?

So you and I as private consumers who might use up the enormous quantity of 5 liters of milk a week (butter, cheese, yogurt and Reni all included) are to these issues like turds in an overflown sewer - orders of magnitude below the scale of the problem.

You need to recognise the strucutral differences between dairy farms up there in Germany and down here in Bavaria.
Plus the legal restrictions surrounding selling milk with the terms "Alpen" und "Bergen" and the desire to get local milk: Costs / Food Milies / desire for local produce.

Edeka is already saying there might be shortages wihn a few days...

The first dairy plant has knuckled down and will raise its prices to 0.43€. It's Berchtesgadener Land, a cooperation using milk exclusively from the area around Berchtesgaden. The manager assumes that the prices for their merchandise may rise in the stores but they are good quality, I have always preferred them to Müller Milch and will gladly shell out 0.05€ more for my buttermilk knowing that the farmers and their cows will be happier.

Irony of life: The cooperation was being boycotted by its own members. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you ...

Already are, according to Auntie. German shops running out of milk

I also like BG-Land diary products. I tend to buy Weihenstephan because, although it's Müller, at least it's local. BGL is my second choice. They do some really nice yoghurts.

For drinking I prefer the Wehenstephan but for creams, yoghurts etc prefer the Berchtesgadenerland products - no signs of panic buying yet.

Lidl has now chosen to raise their milk price by 10c and their butter by 20c effective Monday - welt.de
This price increase will go direct to farmers as a result of a deal between Lidl and farmers' union DBV.
Aldi have not yet followed suit and are Germany's largest milk sellers.

Today is Nationaler Milch-Aktionstag, so look out for protests near you, particularly if you live in Berlin.


And I buy BGL Bio or Andechser Bio as my local stores stock it, Andechser's new cottage cheese is fantastic btw.

We (or rather I usually send the children to) buy directly from the farmer next door for 60 cents, so everyone is happy. I then heat the milk to about 70° C then cool it down and bottle it as quickly as possible. It tastes fabulous, far more creamy than supermarket milk. The farmer's wife told me why: the dairy skims of some of the cream leaving the milk at the standard 3.5 or 3.8% fat which is sold as full cream milk. In reality full cream milk has about 4.5%. Hence the German word "absahnen" (to cream or skim off and is used to describe, amongst other things, dodgy work practices).

was just chatting to my aunt on the phone (they are dairy farmers up in north Germany) and she said all the farmers around there who are taking part in the strike (their neighbours) are throwing tons of milk away, my aunt & uncle's stance is that they do not agree with chucking good milk away so they have continued their deliveries. I agree that it seems a shame that so much is going to waste as a result, equally I think the prices for milk & butter are really quite low here.

the dairy farm in our village is definitely taking part - or at least, they've got a big sign out saying that they are...