By Anna Burdett Farming and rural affairs editor

Last updated at 09:36, Friday, 12 December 2008

Hundreds of Cumbrian farmers attended emergency meetings with Dairy Farmers of Britain (DFB) this week following the milk co-operative’s announcement of a 2p per litre price cut.

Les Armstrong: He says the 2p price cut will have cost him £10,000 by mid-January.

Financial difficulties forced the co-op to make the backdated price cut two weeks ago, leaving farmers thousands of pounds out of pocket over the festive season.

The business will be streamlined as part of a major restructuring which includes the proposed closure of Fole Dairy in Staffordshire and Portsmouth Dairy in Hampshire.

Farmer director Roger Taylor from Staffordshire addressed a meeting of around 40 producers at the Greenhill Hotel on Wednesday.

Speaking afterwards, he told The Cumberland News it had been a challenge for directors to respond to questions from members at around 50 meetings held nationally in the last two weeks.

He added: “I’ve been impressed at the constructive dialogue and positive attitude of those attending the meeting.

“The industry and dairy sector will go through challenging times in the period ahead and it is a time for open and frank discussions without making unsupported promises.

“There’s a lot of people thinking about giving in their notice.”

He urged members to give the business time to enable the restructure to make an impact.

He added: “I will look at the situation with Dairy Farmers of Britain from my own farm’s perspective in the New Year, probably February.”

Kirkoswald farmer Les Armstrong was at Wednesday’s meeting. He says the 2p price cut will have cost him £10,000 by mid-January.

He added: “None of us wants to admit defeat with the co-op at this stage but it is very difficult to consider going forward taking 2p a litre less than other farmers.

“I’m sure there’s a lot of people looking to see what else is available. I want my confidence returned at the very latest by mid-January.

“By then I will want to be sure I will get a return on that £10,000.”

Most members are tied into a 12-month contract but other companies are doing all they can to tempt them away.

Meadow Foods, which took over Ronald Akkerman’s West Lakes Dairy Park milk group almost a year ago, said it had been approached by more than 100 DFB members since the restructuring announcement.

It will hold four meetings in Cumbria next week as part of a producer recruitment campaign.

While First Milk, which owns the The Lake District Creamery in Aspatria, is offering a direct supply contract to non-members paying 26ppl plus a 0.5ppl production bonus – this will be available only to north Cumbria producers.

Direct suppliers will have to give three months notice to quit the co-op, compared to the year demanded of members.

Members in north Cumbria are also being offered a 0.5ppl bonus if they increase production on last year.

A First Milk spokesman told The Cumberland News: “Ideally we would like new producers to join as members of First Milk, and they will have this option.

“However, we feel that offering a supply contract (as an alternative to membership) will give us the flexibility to attract more producers.

“Over the last seven days we have been deluged with producers interested in supplying First Milk.”

First published at 05:19, Friday, 12 December 2008
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk