Livestock Farmer Focus: Adrian Harrison will tackle his MP over milk pricing
It has been a busy month and, having seen lots of farmer folks at various locations, the consensus of opinion is that it is hard out there.
Lots of things are up in the air at the moment and it is amazing how things can get on top of you while you are trying to complete simple tasks such as ordering concentrates. Speaking of animal feed, I have just found out that our price is increasing by £40/t. This equates to 1p/litre for us. Funny, that, as we have just managed to get an extra penny for our milk.
Things are getting highly political with regard to price. There are bullying tactics going on in terms of pricing, and I have heard that some supermarkets are trying to drive down costs and are expecting dairy farmers to foot the bill yet again. With this in mind I have booked a slot with our local MP, William Hague.
Funnily enough I was just gathering my thoughts with regard to my meeting and I found a letter I sent to the same chap in 2007. It stated that the Conservatives were behind the dairy farmer. I will update you all on the outcome in due course.
We recently received a visit from a Viking Genetics farmer tour group. They were Danes who farmed all different breeds of cattle. They were shocked at the every-man-for-himself situation in this country as they were all members of the Danish Arla co-operative.
On a positive note, a good day was had at Westmorland County Show. Our homebred Hillside Lasers Ann took the interbreed championship, this gave me enough of a boost to face the preparations for winter.