Dairy farmers to press for stable milk prices
A campaign group fighting for fair milk prices for dairy farmers will be putting pressure on processors to stabilise prices before pushing for an increase, members say.
Paul Rowbottom, a Farmers For Action member who has helped co-ordinate meetings in Shropshire, said he believed recent unity among farmers has put pressure on processing giants to halt slashes to milk prices.
It comes after the Farmers' Union of Wales and National Farmers' Union warned of further falls in milk prices when the EU quota system comes to an end in April.
The system governs how much milk each country can sell. But when that comes to an end there are concerns farmers will try to produce more in a bid to increase revenue – something that could push other farmers out of the industry.
Mr Rowbottom said: "We are still waiting to see what some places announce for the next few months. Hopefully there should be some announcements that show a stability in the price.
"But we want to make sure we have got stability and the price isn't just going down again and again.
"If we don't get it back up, farmers will not be able to keep going. Depending on what happens in the spring there could be another influx in milk and we could have too much milk. Farmers can't pay their bills at the moment, if there is too much milk and the price goes down again we won't know what to do."
A recent meeting of farmers saw more than 600 vote to continue action should processors keep slashing the price they pay for milk.
