It came as some surprise last weekend to find that Queen musician Brian May had been leasing the stalking rights on his land. The news was broken by the Sunday Times, who found that he was receiving payments of £750 a year for the right to shoot deer on his Middlemarsh estate. Many other papers picked up on this story because of its significance since Dr May has become a figurehead of the animal rights movement.

This is more than just irony. Brian May is the self styled saviour of animals. Not a TV, radio or newspaper interview is complete without the obligatory comment from him “standing up” for the animals. He has vehemently opposed any form of culling, but was most vocal in the recent case of the proposed badger cull. The fact that a millionaire rock star raised his own dwindling profile at the expense of dairy farmers on the brink of collapse and bankruptcy is hard enough to accept. The fact that he did this having profited from a deer cull on his own land is indefensible.

Dr May stood shoulder to shoulder with the RSPCA and other animal rights groups to oppose the badger cull at all costs, including boycotting milk from already pressed farmers. As I reported last week, he also endorsed the policy that would make public the names of all those involved in culling, regardless of the consequences. In a cruel twist of poetic justice, May has been the one whose name was made public for allowing shooting to take place on his land.

Now the tables have been turned, Brain May appears to prefer secrecy about what happens on his own land. The word hypocrite hardly does justice to the level of duplicity displayed, but at least he must start to comprehend how the affected farmers feel.

Barney White-Spunner
Executive Chairman
Countryside Alliance

Mr Paice admitted he did not know how much a pint of milk cost, telling the BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today his wife “buys most of it”.

Farmers say they will lose on average £50,000 a year because of a drop of nearly 4p a litre in the price they receive from milk processing companies.

Dairy farmers from across the UK are expected to stage a protest at Westminster today to voice concerns about the future of the industry. The National Farmers Union (NFU) has said it will support any action that is peaceful and legal and has called for an immediate reverse of the price cuts and the resignation of those involved.

Its vice-president has warned of a mass exodus from the dairy industry, adding that if that happened in three to four years “consumers will be paying a lot more for their milk”.

Some of the farmers are backing a campaign of direct action and have threatened to pour their milk down the drain.

The Farmers Weekly have started a campaign on their Facebook page of ‘Fair Price on the Shelf, Fair Price on the Farm’.

Some supermarkets sell non-organic milk for about 30p a pint, for larger bottle sizes. Single-pint bottles are offered at nearer 50p, with smaller shops often charging more. Milk delivered to the doorstep costs consumers about 65p a pint.

Farmers receive about 14p a pint! As usual the middlemen and the retailers are quite literally creaming off the top…

Hundreds of dairy farmers have gone out of business in recent years, and following recent price cuts by milk processors, the industry says it has had enough.

The NFU and the Tenant Farmers Association have called for all price cuts since 1 April to be reversed by 1 August.

Robert Wiseman, Britain’s biggest fresh milk company that was taken over by European dairy giant Muller in January, cut the price of a litre of milk by 2 pence in June and plans to cut it again by 1.7p in August.

Wiseman’s standard litre price would then be 24.73p. This is well below the cost of producing a litre of milk, farmers say. Other milk processors in the UK announced price cuts last week.

In the dairy industry, the processors set the price they pay farmers for their milk.

They say they have had no choice but to pay less for the product, because the price of cream on the commodities market has fallen sharply in the past 12 to 18 months.

Milk processing in effect involves skimming off cream to make milk more palatable for consumers. So the processors say if they are making less money selling cream, they have less money to pay for the milk.

According to the NFU, Tesco and Sainsbury’s offer farmers “good” contracts, whereas those offered by Asda and Morrisons are “not so good”. Supermarkets will often buy milk directly from farmers and also through third-party processors.

All the main supermarkets are selling milk at £0.52 per litre for 2.27 litres (4 pints) and £0.78 per litre for 1.13 litres (2 pints).

As usual, somewhere in the supply chain there are large profits being made at the expense of the UK dairy farmers. Will they only be happy when the dairy industry has been decimated and we’re only left with super dairies, or resulting in imported milk from Europe.

Badgers were first discovered to carry bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in 1971. Since then much research has been undertaken and badgers are now widely considered to represent a significant wildlife ‘reservoir’ of this disease.

Cattle are by far the most susceptible domestic species to the M.bovis bacteria, although farmed deer, boar, bison, buffalo, goats, llamas and alpacas can also be affected.

How does TB spread?

In hotspot areas of cattle TB, the badger population is considered to play a significant role in maintaining the disease and in preventing its eradication. Although other wild mammals carry the disease, badgers have high rates of infection (the number of animals contracting the disease) and high rates of being infectious (where an infected animal then starts spreading the disease).

The ecology and behaviour of badgers means the potential transmission to cattle is high. For example, badgers often forage in pasture, and can spread the disease by cattle sniffing infected faeces and urine. It is considered that these factors make badgers an important link in the cycle of disease. Other routes of disease transmission include direct contact between badgers and cattle and transmission within farm buildings where cattle are housed or feed is stored.

Once a bovine (e.g. a cow) is infected, however, it does not immediately start spreading the disease. TB develops very slowly and it takes time for lesions to grow in the lungs, and these lesions have to open up before cattle start coughing out the bacteria.

What are the symptoms of TB?

TB is primarily a disease of the respiratory system but very few cases are reported in cattle. This is possibly because the symptoms are very similar to other respiratory diseases but also because regular TB testing of dairy herds catches the infection long before it becomes a chronic disease visually affecting the animal.

As lesions are most common in the lungs (called tubercules) a hard, dry, short cough is usually the first symptom, leading to more frequent coughing and laboured breathing. As this continues cattle will lose condition and later cough up blood.

What is the scale of the TB issue in humans?

The Department of Health still views TB as a ‘major public health problem’ and of the 9.2 million new worldwide cases of TB in 2007 (resulting in 1.7 million deaths!) around 7,750 were in the UK.

In the UK and across the world, more than 99 per cent of new cases in humans are caused by M.tuberculosis and not M.bovis. The risk is still there and so TB is a notifiable disease in all farmed animals. TB in humans presents with the same symptoms whether it is caused by M.tuberculosis and not M.bovis.

How do farmers prevent their cattle being infected by TB?

Farmers are required to undertake regular dairy herd surveillance testing for the disease. If cattle test positive they are sent for compulsory slaughter. In 2010 around 25,000 cattle were slaughtered costing the taxpayer tens of millions of pounds. Once a farm has had TB detected in its herd, movement restrictions are placed on that farm. This means animals cannot be moved off the farm (unless straight to slaughter) until the herd passes two further tests, to ensure TB is no longer detected in the herd.

Farmers can often be surprised at the level of badger activity in and around farm buildings, so they also take practical measures to prevent their animals contracting the disease from badgers. Husbandry measures, such as ensuring gates on cattle sheds and feed stores fit well and are shut at night and raising troughs and salt licks.

The financial implication to farmers.

Regular testing and slaughter of animals is a stressful and costly affair. Although farmers receive money for the animals slaughtered, the amount received does not always accurately reflect the true cost of that animal, for example when high value breeding stock contract the disease.

Government figures state that every time a farmer has a breakdown in the herd it will cost an average of £33,000, although this figure can vary greatly between farms. The compensation paid does not cover any consequential losses, for example the loss in milk sales, or the cost of hiring more labour to help with TB testing.

Is culling badgers the right answer?

A poll conducted by the BBC last year found that about two-thirds of the public oppose culling, with majorities in every age group, region and across both genders.

I’m sure the general perception of badgers is a classically beautiful English animal, but before the question of, ‘do you oppose killing badgers to curb cattle tuberculosis’ with a simple yes or no answer, might it be better to enlightened the general public that it’s ultimately costing the taxpayer about £100m per year and resulting in the death of tens of thousands of cattle?

Your views & thoughts?

The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) ‘not in my cuppa‘ campaign is spot on, but they seem to be missing one vital question, ‘why are mega dairy applications happening in the first place’?

Figures show the average cost of British milk in supermarkets is 25.94p per litre. The average cost of milk production is 29.1p per litre, a gap of 3.16p.

According to figures from the Milk Development Council, the number of dairy farmers in England and Wales in December 2010 stood at 11,041, a decline of 461 on the year before. Since 2002 there has been a 58 per cent drop from 19,000!

The WSPA’s recent survey conducted by Ipsos MORI showed that, excluding price, freshness is the most important consideration for the majority (69 per cent) of adults who buy milk. However, over a fifth (22 per cent) put the cows’ welfare above this. When asked if they would ever buy milk produced from around 8,000 cows kept in large indoor sheds, 61 per cent said “never”.

The reason normal sized dairy farms are going out of business is because the price of milk paid to farmers is not sustainable. An NFU report shows that dairy farmers lose an average of over 3p per litre of milk they produce. About 11bn litres of milk are produced annually across the UK, resulting in farmers losing £330m.

As with most industries, the bigger the producer, the cheaper a product can be produced. The same sadly applies to the dairy industry.

Supermarkets are the main culprit for mega-dairies as they regularly sell milk as a loss-leader (below cost price) to entice consumers into shops, so they want to buy it as cheaply as possible. Perhaps we as consumers should demand higher prices, but can you see that happening?

British dairy farmers are facing a £330m deficit as the cost of producing milk far outweighs the price they are paid for it by the supermarkets.

A new report from the NFU shows that dairy farmers lose an average of over 3p for every litre of milk that they produce. According to the union’s report, about 11bn litres of milk are produced annually on dairy farms across the UK, meaning that farmers are looking at a £330m funding gap.

The gloomy figures will heighten fears that more dairy farmers will go out of business. The sector is already contracting at an alarming rate. According to new figures from the Milk Development Council, the number of dairy producers in England and Wales in December 2010 stood at 11,041, a decline of 461 on the year before. Farmers in Wales were particularly badly hit, with 103 dairy farms going out of business over 2010. As recently as 2002 there were 19,000 dairy producers in England and Wales (58% drop in 8 years!!).

The NFU report shows that the costs of feed and bedding have increased by 16.6% and 13.8% respectively over last year. The price of blended fertiliser rose by 50% between November 2009 and November 2010.

Mansel Raymond, the NFU’s dairy board chairman, said: “These stark figures reveal the very desperate situation on many dairy farms and won’t be a surprise to the many farmers out there who are trying to make a living.”

“The irony is that if dairy farmers had received their fair share of available market returns this year, we wouldn’t be faced with such a staggering gap between the price we’re paid for our milk and the cost of producing it.”

NFU figures show the average cost of milk production is currently 29.1p per litre, while the average British milk price is 25.94p per litre in supermarkets - a gap of 3.16p.

Is this another nail in the coffin for UK farmers from our dearly beloved supermarkets? Supermarkets continually report increased profits, no doubt as a result of squeezing suppliers at every stage. Will supermarkets be the death of the traditional UK farmer?

Asda has dropped 200 of the 500 dairy farmers who supply it with milk which will cut their income by thousands a year, illegibly because of oversupply. The supermarket buys its milk from food company Arla and the farmers specifically get an extra 1p per litre bonus.

Asda told BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today programme that it had had to reduce the number of dedicated farmers because it had more milk than it needed. The changes would provide more opportunities for the remaining farmers, it added.

David Brown, a dairy farmer based near Harrogate in North Yorkshire, said: “We got a letter saying Asda have been looking at the dedicated farmer pool and they have reduced it and unfortunately we will no longer be supplying milk to Asda. It means I am going to lose somewhere in the region of £5,000 a year, which basically means there will be no future investment at this farm - that will be it.”

Mark Smith, a dairy farmer in Nidderdale, North Yorkshire, said the news that he was being dropped from the Asda pool was “gut-wrenching”. The loss of the bonus would take his profits below the cost of production, he said.

BBC article
NFU article
Farmers Guardian article

Within the last week a planning application has been submitted by Nocton Dairies for an 8,000 strong dairy herd in Lincolnshire.

The proposal would facilitate 24 hour milking producing 430,000 pints of milk every day but the cows would see little or no green fields. The cows would be fed a special diet and milked three times a day.

The slurry from the cows will be used to generate power and could be sold to the national grid. An anaerobic digester will produce a biogas from the slurry which will generate enough electricity for the dairy and more than 2,000 homes.

Justin Kerswell, of animal rights group Viva, said: ‘This is factory farming and blows out of the water the pastoral image the dairy industry likes to portray.’

Farming is becoming ever more commercialised as it has to compete in a global market. Perhaps animal rights supporters should spend more time questioning why farmers are having to explore these measures. The paying public consistently wants cheaper products which the supermarkets are always happy to oblige. Sadly the original producer is usually forgotten.

Questions should be asked why so many dairy farmers are going out of business? If the general public would like the ‘anchor butter’ image of dairy farming to continue then they will need to pay a little more for a pint. The situation could be helped by supermarkets not using milk as a ‘loss leader’ which will no doubt have an impact of the price they are prepared to pay for it.

Daily Mail article
Meat Trade News Daily article
Farmers Guardian article