It causes me great concern that dairy farmers are going out of business and that they receive such poor remuneration for the production of the nation’s milk.

Supermarkets are taking a super slice of the profit in the charge to the customer and competition from foreign imported milk is beating down the price.

Personally, I feel that our own British milk for quality and taste is far superior to foreign milk, which travels many more miles on the road before arriving on our table.

Has the Government not learned that for security of essential supply, we should not allow the competitive market to destroy our own producers and leave us at the mercy of imports from foreign countries and suppliers who could hold us ‘to ransom’? Look at what happened with gas supplies recently when Russia decided to withhold supplies from one of its neighbours.

As our own gas fields deplete, we are at the mercy of supplies from other countries which cannot always be guaranteed.

As with fuel and gas, you could say milk is an essential requirement in Britain.

The Government needs to take measures urgently to sustain our own supply and to make the dairy industry robust and healthy again. The nation’s bones and its backbone depend upon our milk supply.

J McCarthy, Oswestry