Farming leaders warn on milk prices

It's that old thing again, money, money, money

Bring pressure to bear on the supermarkets. Write to them telling them that you expect them to pay a fair rate for whatever the product is to the supply chain. If there is no response ~ stop shopping with them and write to them telling them why.

It is about time that the big shops were brought down a peg-or-two by us, the consumer.

NEVER forget, the customer is ALWAYS right.

I suspect the Government has a hidden agenda here. Put small milk producers (or as we we used to call them, farmers) out of business, and bring in the big super-dairies which will no doubt be funded by the Tory politicians as investors.

Am I being cynical or not ~ you decide?

Another great cut by this idiotic goverment, what's left of our farming industry has been hit hard enough already now they want to wipe it out altogether and pay someone in another country for our milk.---Total idiots.

There is something wrong when a bottle of water costs more than the same size bottle of milk, dairy cattle are already treated badly in the quest for more production.

The cheapest drink to buy in supermarkets these days is alcohol. Mind you the prices for soft drinks and water in pubs and clubs are getting ridiculous. In the HMV Ritz in Manchester a bottle of water (500ml) is £2.70. In some pubs coke is more expensive per pint than beer.
Lets not end up being slaves to foreign prices for our milk, once we lose british dairy farming then companies abroad will charge more. And why the hell should we need to buy milk from abroad whenwe have a high standard for our home produced milk.

The consumer cannot afford to support lifestyle farmers even if they do sometimes appear on television with cuddly cows. We are entering the age of large scale super-dairies whose economies of scale can produce milk at a lower cost which the smaller lifestyle farmers cannot match. But surely they won't starve... for wherever there is a farm there is a subsidy, paid for by taxpayers!

This is the price we pay for being in the EU.. The end of dairy farming in the UK. This is the thin end of the wedge, mark my words. After this it will be British Beef, then pork, lamb and eventually we will have to rely on imports, initially from Europe (Poland, Romania etc. where, whilst they still have the same rules governing their food standards, they don't adhere to them) and then from further afield.
This further demonstrates the inequity within the European Union with regards to trade. The UK is a reasonably expensive place to live, consequently prices are high, (not great but inevitable so long as your bus drivers, train drivers, tanker drivers etc all want extra money for working during the olympics and any day there is a 'Y' at the end) As a result the running costs for dairy production are high. This means that the farmer needs to charge a proportionate fee for these products. The supermarkets are not happy with this because we, the consumers, want cheaper produce, so the supermarkets beat the price down and if this does not suit the dairy farmers, tough, the supermarkets will get the milk, butter etc from Poland where the cattle are not as well cared for, the production conditions are not as sanitary and the quality is poorer. But what do we care as long as the milk is cheap?? Wise up you members of the British Public. We need to do something. You can start by buying only milk produced (not just bottled but PRODUCED) in the UK. Lobby your MP to demand that restrictions are imposed on milk imports to ensure that the cattle are kept in conditions that meet EU specifications and are cared for in the same manner as our own in the UK.

British milk is the most hygenic on the market so for god sake pay farmers a fair price and stop the big supermarkets killing dairy farmers. I don't mind paying extra for a quality product.and do not forget they are British farmers and we are British so we must support our own.

I for one, would quite gladly pay more for milk, so long as the farmer gets a fair price and the rise doesn't yet again bulk up the profits of large supermarkets. I only buy organic milk from British herds and if British wasn't available then I'm afraid I wouldn't buy it.