Dairy farmers stop milk collections
9 March 2000
Dairy farmers stop milk collections
by FWi staff
DAIRY farmers claim to have stopped almost any milk from being collected from farms in the main milk-producing areas of Wales.
Milk producers launched dawn raids shortly after 6am on five Welsh creameries and milk depots on Thursday (9 March).
The dairy farmers targeted sites at Felinfach, Llangadog, Haverfordwest, Whitland and Newcastle Emlyn, west Wales.
The demonstrations came as environment officials asked farmers to think twice about dumping milk in protest about the crisis in the dairy industry.
The Environment Agency of Wales made the plea after 50 Welsh farmers sprayed fields with more than 50,000 litres of milk on Wednesday (8 March).
Milk is deadly for the environment and its high nutritional content is extremely polluting if it finds its way into water courses, said the agency.
Bob Merriman, the agencys rural land use officer said: Milk is 400 times more polluting to the environment than raw sewage and will be devastating.
Bacteria in watercourses act by breaking down milk, but the oxygen within the water is rapidly used up, ending in the death of fish and insect life.
As a result, any spillage or discharge of milk made on roads or is very likely to drain away via surface water drains, Mr Merriman added.
Milk flowing into a stream or river could kill insect and fish life. Even the foul sewerage system could be overloaded by large quantities of milk.
The Farmers Union of Wales called a special meeting of its milk committee on Thursday (9 March) to discuss the crisis in the dairy industry.
Union leaders want the government to pay 46 million in agrimonetary compensate to dairy farmers to offset the effect of the strong pound.
Sterlings strength has exacerbated the plight of dairy farmers by making exports of milk products uncompetitive and sucking in imports.