Rising costs putting dairy farms 'under pressure'

Dairy farmers in south-west England are under "significant pressure" as costs rise and margins are squeezed, the National Farmers' Union has said.

Industry figures show farmers are paid an average of 34p a litre for milk - while production costs can be well over 40p.

The NFU said key issues affecting farmers were the conflicts in the Middle East driving up the cost of fuel, feed and fertiliser and a strong global production of milk.

It said there were fears more farmers would leave the industry if the current conditions continued.

Stephen Dark, chair of NFU South dairy board, has a dairy farm in Mullion and said there was "significant pressure both margin-wise and cost pressure-wise" on the industry.

Dark said the sector could only "withstand such a significant loss for a period of time" and he knew of dairy farmers "who recently decided it is no longer for them and had given up, sold their herds, and chosen to do something else instead."

Dan and Liz Nattle have a herd of 260 cattle, a mixture of Friesians and Ayrshires, at Tremore Dairy near Bodmin.

"There are days when you question why you're even doing it. It does feel very draining, mentally and physically," said Dan.

"The markets have been really tough and the milk price has got pretty harsh to the point that it's just covering the cost of production, but literally only covering the costs," he added.

Liz explained they were getting 34p a litre for milk but said they were lucky to run "quite a low-cost system" which relied heavily on grazed grass and not so much on "bought-in concentrated feed".

"But we are on the knife edge of what is profitable and what isn't," she said.

"And there are dairy farmers across the south west with different systems that are really under pressure - and some are saying their cost of production is 10p more than what they're getting for their milk."

The couple have been dairy farmers at Lanivet for more than 20 years and two years ago they diversified and put in a milk vending machine that also sells milkshakes and ice creams.

Liz said it was getting "more and more" popular with a mixture of locals and holidaymakers and doing very well.

"It might be you go to the supermarket and just pick up the milk," she said.

"But this is putting a value on milk and showing what goes on behind the scenes to get it."

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