British dairy farmers’ protest leader Dave Handley is promising more protests over unfair milk pricing. “The next 10 days will see more farmers taking action,” he told the Agricultural and Rural Convention on 30th August. The Farmers For Action (FFA) leader was on his way to a meeting with senior Wiseman management. He will resume talks with the milk processor after recent discussions on calculating farmgate milk prices.
Handley said that there were “…moves in the right direction.” He added: “We’ve agreed to work with them for the process…” There are currently four dairy farmers sitting on the pricing panel.
FFA expectations remain unchanged, however, and discussions with milk processors are digging into the knotty question of getting money back from the earlier producer price cuts in May and June. Writing on the FFA website about previous talks with a number of major processors during late August, Handley described how FFA is keeping up the pressure on major processors.
Arla’s response, in particular, was unhelpful, since: “…at all stages they appeared to shy away from anything to do with farmer cost.” So British dairy farmers will be reminding the processing-end of a cooperative owned by Danish dairy farmers that offering a price for milk is not the same as earning a margin on what it costs to produce.
