Dairy farmers in crisis

THE CRISIS in the dairy industry has hit the headlines again this week. There have been emergency meetings held in Stormont in response to the Northern Irish Dairy crisis.

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Milk prices are down 28% this month as a result of good pasture, whist the abolition of European quotas for milk production have begun to bite.

 

The National Farmers Union are urging farmers to cut milk production, whilst the Lobby Group Farmers for Action are threatening to name and shame supermarkets who don’t pay fair prices for their milk.

 

The NFU says that nationally, the number of dairy farmers has dropped by 393 in the last year since July 2014. Dairy farmers need to make 27p a litre to break even, but the combination of oversupply and supermarket price wars mean that farmers often get much less, with prices currently around 17p a litre.