Marks & Spencers to Award Dairy Farmers for High Welfare Standards

Food retailer, Marks & Spencers has announced a new scheme to reward dairy farmers, which supply the retailer store with fresh milk, for achieving and maintaining the highest levels of animal health and welfare.

The scheme, known as the Milk Pledge Plus scheme, will be run in conjunction with the Bristol Vet School and Anderson’s consultants who will inspect and monitor each farm taking part and supplying fresh milk to ensure that the dairy farms obtain the highest standards with continual improvement to animal health and welfare. All those dairy farms that supply milk to Marks & Spencers where consulted abut the scheme and invited to take part in key meetings.

The price paid to dairy farmers by Marks & Spencers will now be based on a formula taking into account the input costs of maintaining the highest standards of healthy cows as well as the retail cost of the milk. Dairy farmers will be paid agreed bonuses for maintaining and progressing the welfare of their cattle. Farmers will be able to maximise their profits and achieve a better price for their milk if they reach targets set out under the scheme.

Over one hundred and eight million pints of milk are consumed very week in the UK but the dairy industry is one of the hardest hit as food retailers are continually trying to push the price down. And while Marks & Spencers is not one of the largest retailers of milk in the country, it is at least taking the lead with an innovative approach to rewarding farmers for hard work and better animal welfare standards and showing how collaboration between farmers, the processors and end retailers is one of the key elements for helping the beleaguered UK farming industry.