The government has been urged to clarify the eligibility of the Covid-19 dairy hardship fund amid fears that some hard-hit producers could 'lose out'.
The fund aims to help dairy farmers in England and Wales overcome the impacts of the pandemic, and will soon open for applications.
Eligible producers will be able to apply up to £10,000 from 18 June. Those who experienced 25% price losses in April and May will be able to apply for a single payment.
But concerns have been raised over what the dairy sector says is a lack of information from the government regarding the fund's eligibility criteria.
A statement from Defra and the Welsh government said: "Farmers will need to demonstrate they have suffered a reduction in the average price paid for their milk of 25% or more in April and May 2020 when compared with February 2020."
However, there is still significant worry that farmers who had to discard milk would not be eligible.
The Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers (RABDF) said it was 'disappointing' that there were still 'little detail' and 'confusion' over the fund's eligibility.
RABDF chairman Peter Alvis said: “We do not understand how farmers will demonstrate milk volumes dumped as this will not appear on milk statements and therefore, the volume loss can’t be evidenced in this way.
"In addition, the base price for the remainder of the milk may have stayed high, but by throwing away a couple of days production it could have easily tipped them over the 25% mark."
Mr Alvis added that it was also 'frustrating' not to see non-bovine milk producers included in the latest announcement.
There are fears over the fragile state of the non-bovine milk sector, which could face 'collapse' without support.
“Due to the small size of the sector, we hope the government can find a small sum of money to support them as without it, these farms will quite simply not survive,” Mr Alvis said.
Up to the middle of May results from the RABDF dairy losses survey showed over 17m litres of milk had received a reduced value.
Milk production reduction amounted to almost 3 million litres and milk not collected 1.15m litres.
