DEFRA Call for dairy farmers to become more efficient

Unprofitable dairy farmers need to take a serious look at the way they are operating, according to junior DEFRA minister Barry Gardiner.

With a difference in productivity and profitability between the top and bottom-performing farmers of over 20%, there was clearly a need for “a hell of a shakeout”, he told the NFU fringe meeting.

Whether a business was producing milk or widgets, if it was not making money it either had to increase its efficiency or produce something else.