First Milk

Each episode explores the challenges facing agriculture today and the practical ideas, innovations and partnerships that are helping build a more resilient future for farming and food.

This episode was recorded at Groundswell 2026 and was hosted by Mike Smith, dairy farmer and vice chairman of First Milk, who looks at resilience in practice.

I hope you enjoy listening.

Hello, I'm Mike Smith.

I'm one of the First Milk farmer suppliers, but I'm also current vice chairman of First Milk as well.

And joining me today, I have Lucy Noad, who is one of our First Milk member council members and a farmer in the south of the country.

To contrast that, I have Scott Calderwood, who's also one of the farmer directors on the board with myself, who's joining me from the other end of the country in the Scottish region.

Not highlands, but not far away, really.

We met nearly exactly six years ago.

First Milk has been here and AgriCarbon's journey right from the start.

Just a little bit about who we are, just in case people don't know.

So my name's Annie Leeson.

They're interested in carbon emissions.

And what agriculture has in bucket loads, and in particular dairy has, is the opportunity to actually remove carbon from the atmosphere and restore it to the soil.

That is an incredibly important opportunity And what we wanted to do was figure out how can we measure that well enough that companies like First Milk and First Milk's customers and First Milk's customers' customers can make claims about those carbon removals that stand up to scrutiny.

So we came together about six years ago because we all had exactly the same idea.

[upbeat music] This is your Farming in Five daily news update from Farmers Guardian.

In today's episode of Farming in Five, the prime minister says Brexit has done more harm than good, Jeremy Clarkson talks the future after Clarkson's Farm, First Milk shares its disappointing annual results, Muller and Arla increase their milk prices, and the Scottish heating oil scheme has been extended.

Now, the prime minister has vowed to put forward different options for Britain's future relationship with the European Union in a bid to find consensus on one.

Speaking at his first party conference since becoming leader, Andy Burnham said he would use a UK EU summit, which will take place later this year, to present to voters differing options for Britain's long-term relationship with Europe.

"Brexit has not given us control," he said, adding that control has been lost over economy and immigration, and a decade of low growth has put the UK in a weaker position.

Burnham said this is a debate of fairness, and that he understands the anger over what is happening across the channel.

Next, exceptional dairy market conditions have impacted profitability at First Milk this year, according to its annual report.

Operating profit excluding goodwill reduced to 5.2 million pounds, with the business recording a loss before tax of 4.1 million pounds.