DAIRY farmers in Sedgemoor are continuing to struggle under increasing industry pressure after Britain’s biggest dairy firm, First Milk, announced it would be delaying its payments by a fortnight last week.

First Milk, a co-operative business which is owned by UK farmers, said the unprecedented fall in the global price of milk was to blame.

Dairy farmers are already struggling from recent price plummets, which have led to many making significant losses.

At a major dairy farmers’ conference in Glasgow last week, the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) President, Meurig Raymond, said: “For the NFU, it is important that we focus most on issues where we can make a difference – milk price is not one of those areas.

“We cannot reverse world market trends but there are definite areas where we can work to improve the situation.

“The NFU has spoken to the Rural Payments Agency (RPA), we’ve spoken to HMRC, and we’ve spoken to all the banks.

“We’ve made sure they’re aware of the situation and what they can do alleviate cashflow problems for farmers.”

But Farmers For Action (FFA) chairman David Handley, who also spoke at the conference, said First Milk’s decision to stall payment to its dairy farmers is pushing some to breaking point.

He said: “It’s a dire situation when farmers get told they’ve got a delay of two weeks in receiving their milk cheque.”

“Some people may be lucky enough to be financially sound enough that their bank supports that but there are many who are stretched already.

“Their bank manager may see this as a death knell and say ‘Sorry, we cannot support the business for another fortnight’. I think this move by First Milk could open itself up to a legal challenge as to whether this is legally correct and can be applied in the manner it has done and with the speed it has done because, at the end of the day, everybody has got cashflow issues.”

The FFA group have held a series of disruptive but peaceful demonstrations at the Muller Wiseman processing plant off junction 24 of the M5 and the Morrisons depot in Bridgwater over recent months in protest of milk prices.

First Milk’s chairman, Sir Jim Paice MP, issued a statement in which he said: “We are a business owned by dairy farmers.

“The board are acutely aware of the difficulties this current extreme volatility is causing First Milk members and the UK dairy industry.

“We don’t know how long this current market downturn will last, and we are aware that hundreds of UK dairy farmers are unlikely to find a home for their milk this spring.

“Our priority is to make the business and our processing assets as secure as possible in order that we can continue to process and market every litre of our members’ milk.”