Angry Shropshire farmers threaten action
Shropshire farmers were today demanding urgent talks with dairies and MPs – amid calls to stop production in protest at crippling price cuts.
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Shropshire farmers were today demanding urgent talks with dairies and MPs – amid calls to stop production in protest at crippling price cuts.
Farming bosses say drastic measures would be a last resort after cuts which would see them making losses on every litre of milk they produce. More than 600 attended a crisis meeting at the Staffordshire County Showground yesterday.
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They are opposing moves by Robert Wiseman Dairies, Arla Foods UK and Dairy Crest to slash the price they pay farmers for milk.
Dairy Crest will hit farmers with a 1.7p per litre cut from August 1, mirroring an announcement by Robert Wiseman. Arla will pay dairy farmers 2p per litre less.
Farmers have branded the cuts ‘catastrophic’ and say they could put them out of business as many are already making a loss because of low milk prices.
At the meeting, some farmers said tough action needed to be taken, such as stopping milk production or even setting up blockades.
But farming leaders said before such drastic action was taken they should lobby Government, write to MPs and arrange further meetings to discuss the situation.
Mansel Raymond, NFU national dairy board chairman, said: “What’s happened has been a disgrace and no-one is taking responsibility. We are trying to sort out emergency meetings with the companies.
“We need to try and sort this out the way it should be sorted out. If this fails then we will go to the last resort.”
He said he wanted to get a message of ‘common sense’ across to the dairy firms. “Do they want us to close our dairies?” he said.
Bill Higgins, who ha 300 cattle at Pulverbatch, near Shrewsbury, said: “If things carry on, dairy farmers will have little choice but to leave the industry.”
There were 441 dairy farmers in Shropshire in 2009 and 417 in 2010.
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By James Pugh
Comments for: "Angry Shropshire farmers threaten action"
H. St. John Peasbody
Reducing production would certainly help the farmers as it would reduce supply, thereby limiting its availability and increasing the price.
But it won't help hard working families in the supermarkets who are already paying over the odds for food essentials.
Colin.Dodd.
Really Peas???
I thought stuff was cheap in the supermarkets, that's why they're so busy, and that's why town centre shops are becoming extinct.
Katherine de Gama
@Colin - what is your evidence for Shrewsbury town centre becoming 'extinct'. It looks pretty good to me. Cf the down at heel shopping malls
Buskerman
Colin.Dodd does not actually highlight Shrewsbury town centre. However it does seem he is making sweeping allogations for the sake of it.
While further, I'm not sure I have read news of any great impact on Shrewsbury or any other town centre for that matter resulting from out of town supermarkets selling milk!
Big E
The supermarkets are squeezing the diaries,who in turn are squeezing the farmers. It's the supermarkets fault, and that's who any action should be levied against.
H. St. John Peasbody
Surely that reflects consumer demand though? If we didn't buy milk or didn't buy it from supermarkets, this wouldn't occur.
We demand value for money or we vote with our feet. Leave it to the market. Why farmers have to have special treatment beggars belief.
Waterboy8535
Sometimes I really wonder if you think before typing!
The farmers aren't after special treatment but if it costs them more to produce it (Farm Feed, Vets, machinery upkeep etc)than the Dairies will buy it from then how are they expected to keep going?
At this rate all the UK dairy farmers will give up and the Supermarket giants will just import it cheap from the eastern european countries.
I know people want to pay less, but at what cost eventually?
H. St. John Peasbody
Thanks for proving my point. If numbers "give up" that will reduce the supply and therefore improve the value of the product they sell.
Adam Smith's invisible hand will sort it all out. Unless, of course, you prefer a centrally planned economic model?
Wenlock Un
No commercial business has a right to expect fixed returns. If the market doesn't pay, then leave it, the same as other ailing industries.
If British milk is deemed essential it should be regulated by the state and these farmers put on fixed incomes for agreed production and not earning profits when prices are higher as was likely the case before.
grumpy old man
Wenlock Un you really are daft aren't you? One minute you support Public Sector workerss who produce nothing and try and bleed us dry ,then you have the idiotic idea that farmers can survive by selling produce at below production price...you really are blinkered aren't you?
Farmres fiancé
HOW ABSOLUTELY DARE YOU H. ST JOHN PEASBODY. Farmers have never been after special treatment, just a fair price for for their product. The price doesn't necessarily have to go up to the consumer as long as the the fat cats share out the cream there will will be plenty to go around.
Dairy farmers need support or get used to lower quality expensive imported milk and UHT milk.
H. St. John Peasbody
If an industry produces too much of a product, the price falls as supply is greater than demand. You will not get what you consider a 'fair price' if the UK produces too much of the product.
Incidentally, why is imported milk 'lower quality'? What evidence do you have to make such a sweeping statement other than prejudice and scaremongering tactics?
And if it is cheaper to import milk from abroad than to produce and distribute it domestically, farmers really do need to look at their businesses!
Farmers fiancé
Any product shipped hundreds of miles across Europe will be lower quality than a home produced product, its also difficult and expensive to transport.
I'm apologise for not making myself clear in respect of price. The milk will be more expensive due to transportation and cooling costs.
As for scaremongering, if that is what it takes, then so be it. When home supply is lost we become vulnerable.
Port Hill Boy
Farmers seem to want to be cushioned from market forces. I bet they wouldn't apply that to other business sectors.
John
I'm not a farmer, but have looked into this -Farmers will get 25p per litre, milk in local filling station last night - 1/2 a litre 89p, 2 litres £2.45. This means that someone is making a fortune out of this milk after it leaves the farm - it's selling for 5x the price the farmer will get. As I understand they need 30p a litre, so it means that the 2 litre pack in my local shop would need to up 10p or the greedy retailers could accept 10p less profit surely!
Port Hill Boy
"Greedy retailers". Quite possibly John but they are companies that have millions of shareholders, either directly or through pension funds. Ask them if they want less profits made and the value of their investments to shrink.
Greedy retailers - or just good capitalists?
Colin.Dodd.
Port Hill Boy. I assume you are a boy, as your comment is, to put it politely, very juvenile.
A hypothetical situation for you to consider.
Let's suppose you were in the furniture making business, and it cost you £25 to make a kitchen table. How long do you think you stay in business if you were forced to sell them for £15?
You really should try to base your comments on something resembling common sense.
Port Hill Boy
You are a good humourist Colin!
If I was in that situation I'd know that my business wasn't viable - I'd got the costings wrong. I'd go bust - but that's the free market. And that's what this government believes in....
Katherine de Gama
@Porthill - it makes sense for people to organise when their livelihood/s are threaened. The less ethical supermarkets push suppliers to the wall and then put their prices up. I boycott them.
Katherine de Gama
Re comments on the hard pressed consumer... I read today that even in minimum wage it takes only half an hour's work to buy a gallon of milk. I can find source should anyone wish to know.
really confused
And what exactly was the point of that statement, Katherine? People have more than a pint of milk to buy with their wages so what is your point exactly?
liverbird
Farming is the most subsidised industry in the Uk, if other industries got as much taxpayers money as farming we would still be able to post a letter for 10p we would still have a steel industry and we would still have a mining industry
Some farmers take in more revenue for subsidies than from the actual product itself, its a joke
Exasperated
If farmers were paid a fair price for their product, they wouldn't need subsidy.
Jules
I've never ever ever met a poor farmer. It strikes me they have always been 'protected' one way another by the government and per se, the taxpayer and seem to have gotten very wealthy in the meantime. Now they are subject to market forces, like the rest of the business world, and all hell breaks loose.
On the other hand, the power of the supermarkets to fix prices and rake in millions of pounds in profits is pretty scary.