Leader - Give our farmers a fair deal

In a mass meeting of farmers held at Stafford, there were the first rumblings of an uprising in the Shropshire countryside.

Shropshire's dairy farmers have had enough. They say that the latest cut in the price being paid for the milk that they toil to produce is the last straw, and say they have not ruled out stopping production and setting up blockades.

This is tough talk from a body of men and women who are law-abiding and work all the hours God gives, often for little reward, as the idea that you do not see poor farmers is a myth which has never rung more hollow.

For them to even be contemplating tactics which their French counterparts would be prepared to employ at the blink of an eye is an indication of the depth of the crisis which is engulfing the dairy industry, an industry which has been the bedrock of the Shropshire agricultural scene for generations.

It is a national scandal that while it has developed the national government has shown a complete lack of interest, perhaps feeling that there are not many votes and not much political capital to be gained by helping dairy farmers.

It is a crucial issue for Shropshire. Fed up dairy farmers are leaving the industry. That quintessential Shropshire scene, of grazing cows in a field, is disappearing.

Farmers need help to stabilise the situation and the help they need is by being given a fair deal.

It is all very well for consumers to enjoy cheap milk at the tills, but this short term advantage will be at the cost of a disaster in the longer term in which dairy farms disappear in Shropshire, Mid Wales, and beyond.

And the inevitable consequence of that would be that the price would rocket.

See also:

• Angry Shropshire farmers threaten action

• Dairies must take responsibility, says NFU