Vol. 78/No. 38      October 27, 2014

Among the participants were dairy farmers from around the Midlands and the west of England, as well as a few workers from large cattle breeding farms and some young people from the area. The action came out of a round of meetings last month called by Farmers for Action in Somerset, South Wales and Shropshire.

“Since April the price I get has fallen from 35p a liter to 28p [56 cents to 45 cents],” said Luke Neville, who owns 150 cows and some arable land he works with his father. “It means we can’t afford the necessary maintenance jobs, can’t afford to hire anyone and are under more pressure to borrow money, and it’s even worse for other farmers that are renting land.”

Muller Wiseman has cut the price farmers receive for milk four times since April. Other major processors have also cut their prices.

“They have us under their thumbs and we have to take whatever prices they give. That’s why we’re here,” said Neville.

“I’ve had a price drop of 20 percent in the past six months.” said Stafford dairy farmer Phil Green, who has a herd of 160 cows. “When I left school [in the 1990s] there were 40,000 dairy farmers, now there’s 10,000 of us left.”

Some 400 farmers attended a Sept. 18 meeting at the Market Drayton Agricultural Centre. “Production costs have gone down slightly but nothing like the cut we’ve faced for what we produce,” Neal Sadler, who owns a 70-cow farm in Bridge Farm, Shrewsbury, told the Militant at the meeting. “You’re pressed to continually expand the scale of production and to take out more debt.”

“I’m here because farmers’ livelihoods are at stake,” said Alex Littler, a Shropshire veterinarian, at the meeting. “If supermarkets want to sell milk at a loss that is up to them but don’t pass that price cut onto the producers — the farmers.”

Farmers for Action leader Paul Rowbottom addressed farmers at the end of the protest at the Muller plant. “It’s good to see so many new faces. We need to keep doing this and bring others with us.”

Two nights later Farmers for Action organized a further blockade at the Morrisons distribution depot in Somerset. Farmers credit similar protests in 2012 with reversing some of the price cuts processors imposed then.  
 
 
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