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Analysis

What is a litre worth once it leaves the farm, and who decides?

Britain publishes a monthly value for a litre of milk routed to butter and powder, and another for Cheddar and whey. For the protein route shoppers are buying fastest, no separately published route value could be found in the UK or Ireland

Steve Moncrieff8 September 202614 min read

Independent analysis by The Dairy Mail. Not sponsored; the interpretation is our own.

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More from Milk, Pillar One. A hero investigation for The Dairy Mail.

Executive summary

A litre of British milk routed to butter and powder was worth a published 35.62 pence in August. Routed to Cheddar and whey, 35.48. Those two now sit 0.14 pence apart. Routed to the protein products shoppers are buying fastest, no separately published route value was found in the UK or Ireland.

Britain runs an unusually transparent system for valuing milk by processing route, and it covers two routes. AHDB publishes both monthly, free, on a method anyone can read and argue with. It reviewed and reset that method in September 2025 and flagged the possibility of extending it to a third product, because volumes were moving there. The route retail demand is now moving towards is not on that list, and this piece could not find a comparable UK milk-equivalent value for it anywhere else.

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Published by The Dairy Mail, Dairy Connect: https://www.dairy-connect.com/the-dairy-mail/what-is-a-litre-worth-once-it-leaves-the-farm/

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