Farmers warn of further protest as milk market continues to suffer

Dairy farmers have said they will act as early as next week in protest to the ongoing poor market conditions.

"The current situation is terrible," said Farmers For Action member Paul Rowbottom.

"They simply can’t afford to live off this and this is no way to carry on. Farmers’ cheques are bouncing.

"I have been in my job about 25 years and I have not seen anything like it.

"We have got to see some big changes in the market place and hopefully make processors be more careful about things."

Wholesale commodity markets are still incredibly weak and prospects of any recovery in 2015 are looking increasingly less reliable.

In February, farmers protested at a Muller Wiseman plant after it announced a series of cuts to the price it paid farmers for their milk.

Speaking at the meeting in November last year, Aled Jones, a dairy farmer from Caernarfon said, "The recent rapid falls in farmgate milk prices, on the back of downward shifts to global dairy commodities, is putting severe pressure on dairy farmers throughout Wales as we head into winter.

"There’s no doubt that this volatility presents us with some significant challenges and that the confidence of dairy farmers has been rocked by these recent price cuts."

Recently, pre-tax profits at Dairy Crest plummeted 59 percent as its milk operations continued to suffer from market difficulties, over supply and falling prices.

The company said its revenue were down 4%.

In 2013/14 pre-tax profits at the dairy company were £54.2m, today they were reported as £22.1m.