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.

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.

See also:

• Dairies must take responsibility, says NFU

• Leader – Give our farmers a fair deal

By James Pugh