Shropshire farmers warn they could restart blockades in milk price row

Dairy farmers angry over falling milk protests say they will act as early as next week.

Members of Farmers For Action have described the current situation as "terrible" and say farmers are still being forced to give up the industry.

FFA member Paul Rowbottom said the protests will take place without warning at sites in the county.

On several occasion over the last 12 months FFA has staged several protests, including outside Shropshire's biggest dairy, the Muller Wiseman plant in Market Drayton.

Mr Rowbottom said: "The current situation is terrible. There are some farmers on 18p per litre, others are on less.

"They simply can't afford to live off this and this is no way to carry on. Farmers' cheques are bouncing.

"I have been in my job about 25 years and I have not seen anything like it.

"We have got to see some big changes in the market place and hopefully make processors be more careful about things.

"You can't carry on creating milk if it is not needed. There needs to be better control of output to be able to make a profit.

"But processors are still working on volume bonuses. Farmers are being told they are producing too much milk, but then they are being encouraged to produce more through these bonuses."

David Handley, chairman of the campaign group, added: "The situation is dire all over the country. People can't survive and are selling.

"What we can do about it I don't know. But we continue to lobby.

"I have spoken to auctioneers who say famers are putting loads of their cows on the market. There are concerns the price of dairy cows will collapse.

"I think farmers will resort to do something to vent their anger. There is a lot of anger out there."

Dozens of farmers blockaded the Muller Wiseman plant in February after the firm announced it would be cutting 1.75 pence per litre from the price it pays for milk on March 5, taking its standard rate to 24.15ppl. The cost of producing milk is almost 30ppl, and a year ago farmers were receiving about 32 to 33ppl.

Carl Ravenhall, managing director of Muller Wiseman Dairies, said it had been a painful decision to stay competitive and said the business cannot compete if the cost of the milk it buys from farmers is substantially higher than that of its competitors.

Dairy Crest had already announced that its new price of between 23.2p and 25.1p per litre would remain unchanged until July.