The UK is currently facing a nationwide butter shortage, with many supermarket shelves empty.
This is due to this year’s unusually wet spring. Typically, spring brings a ‘flush’ in milk production, as cows graze on fresh grass and produce tons of milk. However, two percent of which is cream essential for butter production.
But this year due to the wet weather, cows have spent less time grazing and the grass was drowned by the rain, so there was no ‘spring flush’ in milk production.
This has left butter producers scrambling to secure cream amid price rises.
Now this has led to UK supermarkets grappling with an unexpected scarcity of another household staple – butter.
Thomas Straker and Toby Hopkinson, who launched British butter brand All Things Butter, have warned that customers will face a shortage of butter in the coming months caused by the dreadful weather.
The UK’s wet 2024 spring has wreaked havoc on the dairy industry leaving cows and farmers in a tight spot.
Milk production from cows in the UK dropped by an estimated 1.1 percent this year due to the unfavourable spring conditions.
But this year, spring was different. The near-constant rain drowned the grass cut the cows’ grazing time short, and led to a national shortage of cream.
As the cream supply dwindled, bakers and restaurants scrambled to buy the last of the cream before prices got even higher.
With cream scarce, butter producers found their churns empty, a shortage that has now rippled down the supply chain, leaving supermarket shelves bare just as demand for butter peaks with the festive season.
