Welcome to our 9th edition of the Focus on Calves. We would like to congratulate Jess Yeomans who returns to work after the arrival of twin boys and introduce both Hannah Padfield and Kim Carnegie, who join the calf and youngstock team covering the South West and the North of England respectively. We also wish a fond farewell to Eimear Diamond, who has decided to return home to Northern Ireland. In the wake of the pandemic and the current war in Ukraine, we can only describe our present marketplace as volatile. Combined with a shortage of raw materials, I believe we have seen a shift in customers’ focus on return on investments and streamlining business operations. Global milk supply has tightened significantly, with only China and South America increasing their production over the last year or so. Both skim and whey prices remain reasonably stable, however, the outlook is still uncertain with the majority of farmers not pushing for increased yields when the cost of inputs such as; energy, feed, fertiliser an
