Heavy snow halts milk collections in south-west

Dairy farmers across the South West are having to throw milk away as heavy snow is preventing tankers from collecting from their farms.
 
Organic producers were being particularly badly affected, said Jonathan Price, group NFU secretary in north west Wiltshire. “Because the producers are distributed so sporadically the tanker drivers are having to drive a lot further – and with the tankers coming from Somerset they are just not able to make it.”
 
He had received a number of calls from both conventional and organic producers whose milk was not collected today – and being on Every Other Day Collection most had limited storage capacity.
 
Some organic buyers would not take milk that was more than 48 hours old, so producers were having to drain their entire bulk tanks, said Mr Price. “People are losing two days’ milk – that’s a lot of money going down the drain.” Most were losing between £2000 and £5000, he added.
 
About half the producers who had contacted the office were insured for the loss of milk, including all those who had specialist or bulk milk tank cover.
 
Ian Johnson, spokesman for the NFU in the South West, said producers had been affected across large parts of the region, including Somerset, Dorset and Devon.

You can view more snow pictures – and add your own – on the February Snow gallery. You can also share your experiences in the snow on the forums.