Dairy cattle Index realizes significant increase

While the Countus Dairy Cattle Index still cautiously started its way up at the end of August, major steps have been taken in the past 4 weeks. The forecast also shows that this increase is far from over.

The Countus Dairy Cattle Index has been rising rapidly since the beginning of September. About the past 4 weeks the Index has therefore increased by almost 6 points to 92,8 points, with 100 points being the long-term average. Although the Dairy Cattle Index was higher last year (mainly due to higher milk prices), the backlog has narrowed considerably over the past few weeks.

The fact that the Dairy Cattle Index has recovered considerably in recent weeks is mainly due to the fact that dairy farmers have less high costs. For example, the prices for roughage are stable, the price for phosphate rights and were also the different beef chunks cheaper in September. being at the same time the milk prices remained relatively stable in recent weeks. The combination of stable income and lower costs ensures the increased return on the dairy farm.

Further increase expected
If we look at the forecast of the Countus Dairy Cattle Index, it becomes clear that the increase (which started in mid-August) is not yet over. Although the long-term average is not expected to be achieved, it is striking that the graph shows an upward trend. Last year, the Index went down quite steeply from this week onwards. At the time, this was partly because phosphate rights expensive, while milk prices tended to be stable or downward.

The fact that the Dairy Cattle Index is expected to rise further this year is partly due to the fact that the milk prices of various dairy processors are not yet ready to fall in the short term. Arla has even increased the price for October. In addition, lump prices and roughage quotations are expected to remain below the 5-year average for the time being, so that the costs for dairy farmers will remain relatively low.

Kimberly Baker

Kimberly Bakker is an all-round editor at Boerenbusiness. She also has an eye for the social media channels of Boerenbusiness.

k.baker @boerenbusiness. Nl

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