The daily struggle for Shropshire farmers in milk price row
It is a "race to the bottom" according to dairy farmers in Shropshire.
Today they spoke of the human cost of falling milk prices and their daily struggle to survive financially.
It comes as farmers pledge to restart direct action, with picketing of dairies in Shropshire expected to resume this week.
Handouts to farmers would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.
But today a warning was given that a whole generation of dairy farmers are at risk of simply disappearing.
And the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institute says it is seeing more cases of having to help rural families who simply cannot make ends meet.
Shropshire's farmers in financial need received almost £94,000 in grants last year – the fourth highest payout in England and Wales.
Rabi says Shropshire sits behind only Somerset , North Yorkshire and Devon in money given out.
More than 50 individuals or families were helped, some with nursing home top-up fees and home help costs, but others simply to get through the working week.
Nationally, the charity sent 865 Christmas hampers to beneficiaries and helped people claim state benefits.
Rob Harris, of Rabi, said: "It's a myth that all farmers are wealthy – many live on or below the poverty line. We help in many different ways and every case is different.
"It may be a farmer who has had an accident who needs help paying for temporary labour while he recovers, or a family with a severely reduced income who need help with food and heating costs.
"We also give regular grants to retired people of limited means and in Shropshire we specifically help a lot of older people by providing nursing home top-up fees and contributing towards home help costs. Every year, new people ask Rabi for help. Whatever the reasons, their problems are rarely of their own making and their pleas never made out of choice."
Members of Farmers For Action say the current situation is "terrible" and say farmers are still being forced to give up the industry.
They are planning more protests in Shropshire, starting from this week.
FFA member Paul Rowbottom said: "Farmers simply can't afford to live and this is no way to carry on.
