Compositional Quality

Butterfat

Provisional butterfat figures for April stand at 4.10%, 3 percentage points below March and 8 percentage points higher than April 2007. On a 2007/08 cumulative basis, average butterfat content stands at 4.06%, 2 percentage points higher than 2006/07 and the highest cumulative figure since the 1998/99 milk year.

	Butterfat (%)					Cumulative Butterfat (%)
	2005/6	2006/7	2007/8	2008/9		2005/6	2006/7	2007/8	2008/9
Apr	4.02	4.09	4.02	4.10*		4.02	4.09	4.02	4.10*
May	3.87	3.93	3.92			3.94	4.01	3.97
Jun	3.86	3.83	3.89			3.92	3.95	3.94
Jul	3.90	3.84	3.93			3.91	3.92	3.94
Aug	3.93	3.97	3.97			3.92	3.93	3.95
Sep	4.04	4.06	4.06			3.93	3.95	3.96
Oct	4.11	4.13	4.17			3.96	3.98	3.99
Nov	4.16	4.17	4.23			3.98	4.00	4.02
Dec	4.15	4.19	4.20			4.00	4.02	4.04
Jan	4.10	4.13	4.13			4.01	4.03	4.05
Feb	4.06	4.08	4.10			4.01	4.03	4.05
Mar	4.10	4.10	4.13			4.02	4.04	4.06
Ave.	4.02	4.04	4.06

*Provisional

Protein

Average protein content for March milk stands at 3.25%, 3 percentage points above February. Looking at protein levels compared to the previous year, March 2008 was at the same level as March 2007. However, protein for the 2007/08 year averaged at 3.31% 4 percentage points above the 2006/07 year.

Protein(%)
	2004/5	2005/6	2006/7	2007/8
Apr	3.21	3.21	3.21	3.27
May	3.25	3.29	3.24	3.33
Jun	3.24	3.26	3.23	3.28
Jul	3.25	3.24	3.19	3.26
Aug	3.26	3.30	3.23	3.31
Sep	3.37	3.33	3.35	3.39
Oct	3.37	3.36	3.38	3.42
Nov	3.33	3.34	3.38	3.39
Dec	3.29	3.31	3.34	3.32
Jan	3.25	3.26	3.28	3.25
Feb	3.21	3.23	3.25	3.22
Mar	3.20	3.23	3.25	3.25
Ave	3.27	3.28	3.27	3.31

Source: DEFRA/RPA

Hygiene Quality

The data below covers the monthly average milk quality data for Great Britain from 2006. Hygiene quality data for March 2008 shows average Bactoscan results fell by 2,000/ml from February to 30,000/ml, and year-on-year comparisons show a decrease of 4,000/ml, from 34,000/ml in March 2007.

SCC levels for March have increased by 3,000/ml compared to February to 193,000/ml and are 3,000/ml higher than March 2007.

Average GB Milk Quality
	Bactoscan ('000 per ml)
	2006	2007	2008
January	32	36	35
February	32	40	32
March	32	34	30
April	32	32
May	31	29
June	28	29
July	27	33
August	29	31
September	28	29
October	32	30
November	36	32
December	37	34
	Cell Count ('000 per ml)
	2006	2007	2008
January	187	187	187
February	189	188	190
March	187	190	193
April	192	195
May	196	195
June	203	199
July	209	205
August	211	210
September	197	206
October	208	195
November	187	185
December	186	184

Raw Data provided by: DIAL/FMG Members