Protein boom leaves dairy farmers behind on milk price

UK milk usage in the home has reportedly dropped by 2% in the last year, as eating habits change and consumers move away from some of the traditional meals and drinks that once relied heavily on milk. But I keep coming back to one question: why?

As a dairy farmer, perhaps I’m slightly biased, but where else can you find such a naturally produced, nutrient-dense, protein-packed food for relatively little money? Milk has spent years being told it needs to be lower fat, lighter, skimmed, semi-skimmed – or replaced altogether. Yet at the same time, consumers are talking more and more about clean eating, less processed food, higher-protein diets and wanting to know exactly where their food comes from.

Dairy farmers feel they are not getting enough for their protein (Image: Getty Images)

Surely, in theory, that should be good news for us dairy farmers? And maybe we are starting to see a change. Whole milk is beginning to see volume growth, with shoppers increasingly seeing it as the more natural option.

Perhaps after years of being told to take the fat out, consumers are starting to realise that cows’ milk was actually pretty good in the first place! And then there is protein.

I’ve faced more pressure in my 40s to take protein than I ever did to take drugs in my teens. Protein shakes, protein yoghurts, protein bars, protein puddings – even cottage cheese has somehow reinvented itself from something your granny had with a bit of pineapple into one of the trendiest foods on social media.

And if you needed any more proof that protein has well and truly gone mainstream, take a wander down the crisp aisle. This month, Doritos is launching a high-protein range in the UK, offering 10g of protein per bag. Yes, we have now reached the point where even a bag of crisps needs a protein claim.

It does make me wonder: is this really what consumers are demanding, or have brands simply spotted the latest health trend and realised there is money to be made by putting the word protein on the packet?

But either way, it tells us something important. Protein now has a value well beyond the gym and the sports nutrition aisle. It has become a selling point in its own right – something food companies believe consumers will actively seek out and, importantly, pay for.

Protein is rising in value (Image: Yuri Arcurs peopleimages.com)

And that should make the dairy industry sit up and take notice. While food manufacturers are busy finding ways of adding protein to everything from puddings to crisps, we dairy farmers are producing it naturally every single day. Surely that puts dairy in an incredibly strong position?

We don’t need to invent a new protein source or find a clever way of adding it to a product – it is already there in the milk leaving our farms every day. The opportunity is to take more of that natural dairy protein and turn it into the higher-value foods and ingredients consumers increasingly want. But we can’t assume that market belongs to dairy.

The new UK Doritos Protein range, for example, doesn’t actually use dairy protein – its protein comes from soya, lentils and corn. Interestingly, the US version does contain dairy-based casein.It might seem like a small detail, but it makes an important point: if dairy doesn’t move quickly enough to capture this market, somebody else will. And this is no longer a niche market driven by gym-goers and bodybuilders.

Consumers are looking to increase their intake for fitness, maintaining muscle as they get older, weight management or simply because protein has become associated with a healthier diet. The rise of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs adds another dimension, with greater emphasis on maintaining protein intake while consuming considerably less food.

For dairy, that potentially means a much bigger customer base than we have traditionally associated with high-protein products. We have a naturally protein-rich raw material, an established supply chain and a product consumers already know and trust. What we need is the processing capacity, innovation and investment to turn more of that milk into the products these new markets are demanding. Because perhaps the biggest opportunity for dairy isn’t selling more litres of milk.

It’s making every litre worth more. And if other food sectors can see the value in putting protein into a bag of crisps, surely we should be getting considerably more excited about the protein that is already in a tank of milk. For dairy, surely this is a massive opportunity and some processors certainly seem to think so. Arla’s latest half-year results show just how valuable the protein market is becoming.

Net profit rose by around 35%, with the business highlighting continued strong global demand for protein alongside growth in its branded dairy products. Then look across the water to Ireland. Glanbia is seeing the same trend.

Its Optimum Nutrition brand grew revenues by more than 25% in the first half of 2026, while its Dairy Nutrition business reported strong growth in both volumes and prices for protein solutions. The company is now describing itself as a ‘protein powerhouse’ – which tells you something about where it sees the opportunity.

Farmer-owned Tirlán is investing €126 million in a new whey processing facility, specifically designed to produce higher-value nutritional whey proteins, including clear whey aimed at the growing lifestyle and performance nutrition market.

Which brings me back home to Scotland. We produce a fantastic raw product here, but are we doing enough to capture the value from it? There are encouraging signs. Here in Dumfries and Galloway, Rowan Glen has announced investment plans which will give the business the capability to move beyond yoghurt and into products including cottage cheese. It might be on a different scale to the €126 million whey investment in Ireland, but it is where some of the opportunity lies. It definitely has the milk supply. It also, at times, has the right climate!

And it has farmers investing millions in modern dairy units, improving efficiency, welfare and milk quality. But if consumers are changing what they want from dairy, our processing and – importantly – our milk contracts need to change with them. Because the future may not simply be about persuading people to drink another glass of milk.

It is about getting more value from every litre we produce. And this is where, for me, there is a glaring contradiction. The dairy industry is telling us that protein is one of its biggest growth opportunities. Some processors are investing millions in extracting, concentrating and marketing it.

Whey, once regarded as the by-product of cheesemaking, has become an increasingly valuable ingredient. Yet some dairy farmers supplying milk into ingredients markets are still on payment schedules where the protein they produce is not rewarded.

At one end of the supply chain we are talking about a protein boom. At the other, we have farmers who can feed, breed and manage cows to produce more protein, but reach a point where there is little or no financial incentive to produce any more of it. That doesn’t just raise questions about fairness. To me, it looks like a missed opportunity. If protein is where the consumer is going, surely the whole supply chain should be aligned to produce it?

The price signal should travel all the way back to the farm, encouraging farmers to produce the milk constituents the market actually wants. Otherwise, what are we incentivising? Ireland appears to have recognised the opportunity.

Tirlán isn’t spending €126 million on whey processing because it thinks protein is a passing fad. It describes the investment as part of moving further up the value chain and creating higher-value nutritional products. Arla’s results tell a similar story, with the company saying that performance was driven mainly by higher whey protein prices and strong demand for whey-based ingredients.

So perhaps the UK dairy sector needs to ask a bigger question. Are our milk pricing models keeping pace with what is happening in the market? Some producers are already supplying contracts heavily weighted towards ingredients and manufacturing. If that milk is feeding into a market where protein is becoming increasingly valuable, surely there should be a clear link between creating that value and the price paid for the raw material?

Processors absolutely need to make a return to justify investment as without modern processing capacity, we can’t take advantage of these growing markets. But the same applies at farm level. Farmers need a return that gives them the confidence to keep investing in buildings, technology, people and, most importantly, the cows that produce the milk in the first place.

And perhaps that is the real missed opportunity. We spend a lot of time talking about how to make dairy more efficient, more productive and more responsive to the market. The market is quite literally asking us for more protein. If you want farmers to produce more of what the market values, you have to value it on the milk cheque too. So protein might be booming, but until that value travels all the way back to the farm gate, some dairy farmers are wondering whose boom it really is!