Dairy farmers threaten milk crisis over Christmas
Dairy farmers today threatened to spark a milk crisis over Christmas with a series of new blockades at some of the country's biggest dairies.
Members of the Farmers For Action group last night staged a protest at the Muller Wiseman dairy in Droitwich and say they have refused to rule out a protest at the company's Market Drayton headquarters in their ongoing campaign for a better deal for the milk they produce.
The FFA says farmers are not being paid enough for their milk and intend to force dairies and supermarkets to give a bigger share of the shop price to producers.
A further blockade is threatened today at an Arla dairy at Stourton, Leeds, which produces 1.75million litres a day for Asda and Morrisons.
The latest protests follow a difficult year for dairy farmers who in the summer fought against moves by the major processors to further cut the price they pay for milk.
This included a summer of discontent which saw a series of blockades at Müller and Robert Wiseman Dairies in Market Drayton.
David Handley, chairman of FFA, said: "Nowhere is exempt from protest. We are not ruling out anything at the moment. We are trying to negotiate."
Andrew Bebb, who farms in Hanwood, near Shrewsbury and is a member of FFA, said: "We are trying to get money back into farmers' pockets, but it's trickling back too slowly.
"The cow population has dropped significantly and the number of farmers has halved in the last 20 years."
The protests, together with action by the National Farmers' Union, triggered intervention by the Government and the establishment of a voluntary code to protect dairy farmers.
Subsequently, a number of supermarkets, including Tesco, committed to ensure their dairy farmers are paid enough money to at least meet the cost of production.
However, the FFA says many farmers are continuing to make huge losses.
