Recently in Dairy Category

Is it just me or is the Daily Mail waging a campaign to destroy the British farming industry?

I'm no fan of the Mail - in fact few newspapers make my blood boil with such regularity, but this week it has reached new heights.

This morning marks its third front page on the cloned cow revelations which have focused a media storm on one unsuspecting farmer in Inverness.

Under the headline 'Farmer with 96 Clones : As the big supermarkets vow NEVER to sell clone meat or milk, the Mail tracks down the farm at the centre of the controversy' it carries a picture of Steven Innes who runs Newmeadow Holsteins.

They have portrayed the poor man like a criminal as they whip up a frenzy about cloned milk and meat.

It's nothing short of disgusting.

Those 96 cows are NO DIFFERENT to any other cows. They are the offspring of the offspring of a cloned cow. They were born and have lived exactly the same way as any other cow.

Scientists have said their meat and milk is safe.

The FSA has said it is safe.

And the European Food Safety Authority says it is safe.

Yet the Daily Mail is convincing the public it is not.

That's not to say there are not issues over traceability, transparency for consumers and animal welfare - these are all perfectly legitimate.

But by stoking the fires of food safety concerns, the Mail engages in scaremongering of the worst kind and even the most intelligent consumers, normally immune to the scare stories the Mail comes up with, are falling for it.

Even Eamon Holmes (and I'm probably being a little kind calling him intelligent after this cracker!) said on Sky News this morning it was a little like BSE in that farmers put public health at risk for the sake of trying to boost production.

What a ridiculous suggestion!

No other national newspaper has gone for the story in the same way the Mail has, and no other journalist has framed the story quite like Sean Poulter (who we can thank for previous scares over 'Frankenfoods') has.

It begs the question, why is the farming industry not getting its point across? And the FSA and Defra too?

They should be moving to assure the public meat and milk that has entered the food chain is perfectly safe.

If they fail to do that the damage will be done and - as one consumer commented on the Mail's website on Monday (yes, for the purposes of research I was forced to read it) - people will switch to buying French meat and milk.

The industry can not afford to let this roll on and needs to act decisively to assure consumers there is no risk.

Only once it has done that can we have a reasoned debate about animal welfare and traceability to ensure procedures are put in place to ensure the LEGITIMATE concerns this has raised are properly addressed. 

Otherwise the likes of the Mail will win the day and it will turn a very bad week for some farmers into a PR disaster for an entire industry.

The countdown to 2012 has already begun and all eyes are on London as it takes its place at the centre of the world's attention.

It is set to be an event like no other, and we have already been promised it will be the biggest and best we have seen to date.

Yes, Arla's proposed new milk processing plant is something which will place the UK at the forefront of modern dairying. The biggest of its kind anywhere in the world and capable of producing around 1 billion litres a year, it is a hugely exciting prospect.

And one which could - for the dairy industry at least - be an event far more significant than the small matter of the Olympics taking place just the other side of the M25.

That sentiment will not be lost on the UK's dairy farmers. After all, it is a huge investment (initial estimates from some industry figures put the cost at well over £200 million) and one Arla must be confident will generate returns for its business.

It shows confidence in an industry which has been battered from pillar to post in recent years. It also demonstrates that Arla is in it for the long term as it cements its position as the biggest liquid milk processor in the country.

And with 1 billion litres of milk - that's enough to fill the Olympic swimming pool at Stratford some 400 times over - at the new plant, it will change the landscape of the UK liquid milk market.

The announcement raises two big questions. First, where will Arla get the milk from, and second, is retail growth at Arla going to be strong enough to sustain those volumes?

The simple answer is not without big changes. One presumes they will need to recruit many more producers and they will also have to target retail and wholesale contracts already held by other processors.

That should set a cat among the pigeons as the other big players, Wiseman and Dairy Crest, look at their own liquids business wondering if they can sustain their position.

Wiseman, one would argue, can. With its impressive new dairy at Bridgwater producing 375 million litres a year it already has the strength of position to see off any challenge.

Dairy Crest however is a different matter. It would take a huge investment for it to match the two biggest players in the market and its liquids business is likely to be vulnerable from the anticipated onslaught from Arla.

But whatever happens in the processing sector one thing is for sure, the UK will lead the way in liquid milk processing and farmers are bound to be the ultimate winners from London's 2012 exploits.

EVERY year, dairy farmers flock to the Dairy Event. Every year, there is the same buzz as farmers get the chance to witness at first hand the new innovations, equipment and ideas that could give their business the boost they so desperately need.

But every year, the same question raises is head above and beyond all the talk of the business of actually producing milk - whether British dairy farmers have any sort of future to look forward to.

This year, there was a new twist to the debate. Opening the show, the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers' chairman, Lyndon Edwards, highlighted just how fragile the industry was feeling after the sustained period of low prices.

The number of dairy farmers has halved in 10 years, with farmers still quitting at a rate of 14 per week. As a consequence, the UK suffered a shortfall of 1.46 billion litres of production last year, he said.

The result of this, he added, was one million litres of liquid milk was being imported on daily basis to meet demand last year, a trend that is continuing this year.

This is on top of the 405,000 tonnes of cheese imports last year but it was the liquid milk figures that raised eyebrows.

Until recently liquid milk imports have been considered unnecessary, impractical and uneconomic but such is the scarcity of domestic supply, processors are now buying milk from Ireland France and Holland on the spot market, Mr Edwards said.

Having appeared on this website, his comments quickly began generating wider interest, culminating in them being turned into a story in this morning's Times newspaper.

The processing sector was less than pleased. Initially representatives from higher up the supply chain began questioning the figures, saying they did not have the relevant data to hand.

By lunch-time processors were denying them outright, acknowledging that some liquid milk imports may have come in over short periods last year, but insisting current levels lie somewhere between zero and negligible. Some of the language used to make the point was certainly not for quoting.

The current market outlook was positive, with both farmers and processors investing heavily in the future, was Dairy UK's Jim Begg's take on the situation. Against that background, Mr Edwards' comments were not helpful, he suggested.

Getting to the bottom of the milk imports question will require further investigation. But in the meantime there, is no denying that, while not everybody liked them, Mr Edwards' views certainly livened up the annual state of the industry debate at Dairy Event 2009.  

To say it's buzzing here at the Dairy Event would be an overstatement.

But compared to the last time I was at Stoneleigh Park - this year's Royal Show - it is a hub of excitement.

The place has had a whole different feel to it over the past two days and despite the problems facing dairy farmers at the moment, there is no shortage of them here.

Looking around the displays, there are plenty of farmers keen to see the latest technology in action.

And then there's the political sideshow with farming Minister Jim Fitzpatrick paying a visit yesterday and shadow agriculture Secretary Nick Herbert doing the rounds today.

Add to that the launch of the NFU dairy contracts, countless presentations on the falling returns of the UK dairy industry and there's more than enough to keep farmers entertained.

But like the Royal, it's another farewell for the Dairy Event as it says goodbye to Stoneleigh Park and takes next year's show to the NEC Arena for the first time.

It will be interesting to see if the new venue, taking it away from the National Agriculture Centre, will change things.

Without doubt, the feel of the show will be different but provided there are still flashpoints in the industry to spark debate, and enough enthusiasm for dairying in the UK, the crowds should flock through the doors of the NEC in 2010.

It seems the French are at it again - striking that is.

It's something the French are very, very good at (my personal favourite being the strike in March this year protesting about high unemployment).

Picture the scene...

What do we want?

Jobs!

When do we want them?

Now!

And so now we have the milk strike.

Producers here will feel the French farmers' pain but you can be fairly sure they won't be joining any call to direct action, if for no other reason than it simply won't get them anywhere.

While France encourages the rest of Europe to pour milk down the drain, the speed of recovery in the dairy industry is surely going to be slowed.

They want the EU to freeze quotas and increase intervention prices and export refunds.

But strike or no strike there is very little prospect of that.

Mariann Fischer Boel has told them it would be 'out of the question' when asked at the Agriculture Council this week.

CAP reform will see quotas abolished and there is no prospect of a U-turn on that, not even a temporary one.

Surely then, the French strike will only hurt French producers and consumers, and do nothing to help the current situation many farmers find themselves in.

Politicians have acknowledged the pain being felt throughout the sector at the moment, but like analysts in the UK, they know intervention is not a panacea for the industry's ills.

NFU dairy board chairman Gwynn Jones this week told me the priority should be focusing on the supply chain - get that right and everything follows (not naturally, it will still take some work of course, but its a starting point).

So rather than asking Europe for far more than it is willing to provide, farmers should be calling for urgent action to take on retailers and to bridge the gap between farmgate and retail prices.

Only with a fully transparent and accountable supply chain will the industry be able to get back on its feet.

All the more reason then for politicians in Defra and BERR to look closely at the proposals for a retail ombudsman. 

Rested after their summer holidays and back to the business of running the country they now have a chance to make a difference to farmers throughout the UK as well as to consumers who are bound to benefit from a fairer, more efficient supply chain.