On Fri, 3 Jun 2011 09:14:25 +0100, "Ian B"
wrote:


As I said before, is it because there are efficient farms in the market that
*can* sell at that price, and it is only inefficient ones who can't? And if
they can't afford it, why the hell are they doing it? Farmer: sell your
cows, or just slaughter them. Save yourself money. There's no use sending a
cheque every month to Lord Tesco, is there? Something funny going on, isn't
there? It doesn't make sense.


I agree that it does not make sense. Whilst the problem can be boiled
down to one of dairy farmers needing to produce milk at a price their
customers are prepared to pay, the situation is not quite that simple
and neither is the solution as simple as selling or slaughtering the
cows.

Where assertions are made that milk prices from the big buyers such as
Wiseman and Dairy Farmers of Britain does not cover production costs,
invariably this does not mean just the direct costs such as feed and
fertiliser but includes the indirect costs such as all the farm
overheads etc. This is still not a good position to be in (hence the
number of dairy farmers selling up) but maybe not quite as dire as the
NFU like to make out during their regular profile raising efforts.

Here in the south west, a major dairy products region due to its
pastoral landscape, the climate, topography and the traditionally
relatively small size holdings are not suited to cereal production
where there is money to be made at the moment. The holdings tend to
have been in the same family for generations which tends to impair
development but frequently the younger generation are diversifying and
entering environmental stewardship schemes or getting second jobs in
order to support the farm income and their chosen lifestyle.

rbel