Exodus of the Welsh Dairy Farmers

Dairy farmers are now leaving Wales’ beleaguered milk industry at the astonishing rate of 20 a month, it emerged at the United Counties Show yesterday. Figures produced by the UK Milk Development Council show 20 Welsh farmers sold their dairy herds last month making a total of 170 in the past 12 months.

There are today a total of just 2,604 across the nation – half the number 12 years ago when more than 5,200 were recorded in 1993.

Dai Davies, deputy president of the National Farmers’ Union Cymru and a dairy farmer from Whitland, predicted the exodus would continue in the face of rock-bottom prices. And he added that dairy farmers had few alternatives to diversify into.

‘We are a grass-producing country and we don’t have a lot of choice,’ he said.

The production of biomass crops for fuel was a possibility, but the slump in cattle prices did not offer much hope for livestock production.

Mr Davies said, ‘A high proportion of Welsh dairy farmers are struggling to make a profit and there could be a flood of these people leaving the industry once they study the new Single Farm Payment.’

The new payment, part of the Common Agricultural Policy reforms, comes into effect this year and will effectively pay farmers for looking after the land rather than on the basis of how much they produce.

The union’s Carmarthen county chairman Peter Francis, who owns a dairy farm near Kidwelly, said Carmarthenshire was Britain’s most productive milk-producing area. But farmers were being squeezed by supermarkets and processors that dictated a farm- gate milk price that left farmers unable to make a profit. ‘It’s absolutely crazy that there were further reductions in the price paid to farmers when there is less milk being produced than at any time since the mid- 1980s,’ he said.

Evidence from England showed that it was mostly the wealthier farmers who quit milk production.

‘It’s not the people who are not producing very much, and who need to get out,’ he said. ‘With borrowing on dairy farms it might be that people can’t afford to get out because there are no other jobs for them. A lot of dairy farmers have said that the price will rise when there is less milk around, but that’s not happening and it’s very worrying.’

A Defra-funded study of the changes in England and Wales’ dairy farming over the past three years highlights the crisis.

Released last week, the study showed that Britain, which is still not self-sufficient in milk, is likely to fall short of quota by more than one billion litres in the near future.

Dairy farming, once the backbone of the small family farm, is now increasingly uneconomic except for the largest, most intensive holdings.

Last week Farmers For Action blockaded 10 depots in Scotland and England in protest over claims only a fraction of recent increases in supermarket prices has filtered down to the farm gate.

FFA chairman David Handley, who farms in Monmouthshire, has warned of further demonstrations and blockades.

‘Our country is on red alert in view of the recent atrocities, which is all the more reason for the UK to be as self-sufficient as possible,’ said Mr Handley.

‘By screwing producers – not only milk but red and white meat, fruit and vegetables – the processors and retailers are forcing them out of business and consumers will be fed more and more on cheap, additive-infested imports, adding to the already ridiculously high air and road miles to get food on the table.’: Charles tells farmers ‘adapt to survive’:The Prince of Wales yesterday called for action to save Britain’s family farming industry in the face of cheaper, foreign imports. Charles urged farmers to be more adaptable to survive and use marketing to encourage the consumption of more locally-grown produce.

He also said his promotion of organic farming from the mid-1980s had been vindicated by a growing consumer preference for naturally- grown produce.

In the second part of an interview with the Shropshire Star, the heir to the throne said he refused to accept that British farming was dead.

‘I personally feel passionately about the vital importance of maintaining the family farm in Britain because to me it would be an absolute tragedy of the greatest proportion if we lost the majority of our family farms,’ he told the newspaper.: ‘Best cow in world’:Pigs and sheep take over the livestock rings at the second day of the United Counties Show today. Yesterday saw an expected victory by Dalesend Storm Maude, from the Tregibby, Cardigan, farm of this year’s show president Jimmy Wilson, in the dairy classes.

The seven-year-old Holstein, described by one judge as ‘the best cow in the world’ has won on every appearance since 2000.

The beef supreme champion was a victory for the Limousin with Sheelin Tiger, a three-year-old bull from Mansel Joseph and Sons of Ilston, Gower.

He took the winner’s rosette at the Three Counties Show in Worcestershire earlier this year and was reserve champion male at the Royal Welsh last month.

Today there are 17 sheep breed classes, together with young handlers and carcass competitions, with the main sheep championships in the afternoon.

The main rings features a succession of equine events including the ever-popular Cobs, Arabs and Shire horse competitions.

And there is a full programme of entertainment, with four Elvis lookalikes performing stunts on horseback, and the spectacular Horsemen of the Apocalypse, a dramatic team of stunt riders that have appeared in many films.

Elsewhere on the 90-acre site at Nantyci, near Carmarthen, is a huge range of trade stands, a food hall, a shopping mall and a horticulture pavilion.

A children’s club marquee provides a meeting venue for youngsters between five and 12 years old with non-stop entertainment, competitions, and sponsored prizes.

Entry to the show costs pounds 8 for adults and young people over 14 years old (pounds 6 after 4pm) and pounds 6 for concessions, OAPs and under-14s. Children under-five are admitted free.