FFA planning further milk blockades

FARMERS FOR Action has warned that it will take further action to disrupt milk supplies unless producers see an increase in farmgate prices.

Several hundred producers took part in blockades in England and Scotland last Thurs (Aug 4), taking the unprecedented step of stopping tankers from picking up or distributing milk for a period of about six hours.

FFA chairman David Handley told FW this week: “We need to keep the pressure up, so we are already putting together plans to go out again next Thursday (Aug 18).

“We reckon there is 1p/litre to come out of the last cost price initiative that still hasn’t been passed back to producers. We also think the figures justify another 3p/litre on top of that.”

Latest figures from the Dairy Hygiene Inspectorate highlight the fact that falling milk prices have put producers under a pressure which many have found intolerable.

The DHI reported that 61 farmers left the industry in July, which was down from a high of 138 in June. But it still leaves the number of producers in England and Wales at an all-time low of 14,671, and it is estimated there are only a further 1450 dairy farms left in Scotland.