Stephen Bell

Each month the milk monitor Stephen Bell delves into the dairy industry and gives us the low-down on the good, the bad, the ugly and everything in between.

America's biggest company Dean Foods has filed for bankruptcy protection as it tries to pull off a sale to Dairy Farmers of America.

In June 2014 I popped up to Massey University for a good feed.

And I got one.

The British government has severely undermined its farming industry by confirming it will remove tariffs on some key agricultural sectors, including grains, eggs, fruit and vegetables and some dairy products in the event of a no-deal Brexit, National Farmers Union president Minette Batters says.

Fonterra has confirmed a farmgate milk price of $6.35/kg MS for last season while recording a net loss after tax of $605 million, an improvement on the forecast loss of up to $675m.

Fonterra farmers are trapped.

They are being held hostage by their own co-operative.

Fonterra is writing off another $820 million to $860m of, mostly overseas, asset values and expects to make a loss of $590m to $675m this year, equal to 37 to 42 cents a share.

So, things are bouncing around a bit on the money-go-round.

The Global Dairy Trade index had a bit of a recovery last month, putting milk powder prices back above $3000 a tonne and predictions for Fonterra’s seasonal milk price are doing a ping pong either side of $7.