Dairy farmers pay the price

At a time when many local dairy farmers are having to accept as little as 10p per litre for their milk, the NFU’s Michael Oakes questions the attitudes within sections of the processing industry and their lack lustre attempts to stimulate demand and increase sales.

Farmfoods were offering consumers any two litres of semi-skimmed or whole liquid milk for £1.

Booker Cash and Carry were selling two litres for only 59p and suggesting to retail outlets that: “You can quite easily sell below the discounters and supermarkets - you could even sell two (as in four litres) for £1.50 and make a fair margin.”

With words like these, Booker is blatantly taking advantage of the worst dairy crisis experienced by farmers across the country.

While some are already paying a fair farmgate price for liquid milk, and therefore not affecting the farm gate price through retail promotions, others have no sustainable pricing system in place.

So the questions must be asked: who is funding these promotions? Are Farmfoods, Booker and others taking advantage of poor farmgate dairy prices and therefore are dairy farmers indirectly paying the price for these promotions?

With the dairy industry going through the most difficult time it has ever faced in the past seven years (milk prices being far below break-even levels) promotions like these add fuel to the fire to any dairy farmer’s situation.

How can dairy farmers trust their milk buyer when they don’t have any transparency on how their milk prices are calculated?

If retailers want to secure British dairy products in the future, now is the time to act to support those who are producing the raw materials.

Unfair penalties

The main farming unions representing livestock farmers in the British Isles have met to discuss key issues affecting the cattle and sheep sectors.

Union’s spokesman Charles Sercombe believes further downward pressure on farm gate returns is sapping producers’ long-term confidence. He says: “In order to maintain a sustainable supply of high quality beef, retailers and processors must recognise that beef prices need to be above the costs of production, which currently is not the case.”

He insists that butchers and supermarkets must work with farmer representatives and imposing severe penalties on farmer producers is totally unacceptable.

For Welsh sheep producers, Wyn Evans said price stability in the market for the next month is crucial as it sets the pattern for the rest of the season, which in turn will be key to incomes for sheep farmers in 2016.

He commented: “Demand will increase over the next few weeks driven by the retail changeover to spring lamb, a favourable exchange rate and also by domestic demand boosted by the Muslin festival of Ramadan which commenced on June 7.”

The UK and Irish farm representatives were strongly supportive of work of the EU Sheep Reflection Group, which was set up by EU Agricultural Commissioner Phil Hogan.

Crosby Cleland, UFU sheep committee chairman, said: “It is essential that the EU Sheep Reflection Group brings forward a set of strong and practical recommendations for the sheep sector focusing on the key issues of incomes and profitability, initiatives and promotion to support consumption, measures to grow trade and develop technology. In addition, sheep farming offers many positive public goods and the value delivered by the sheep sector to the wider society and environment must be fully recognised.”

Recognising the positive work of EU Agricultural Commissioner Phil Hogan in defending the beef sector, Angus Woods, IFA beef committee chairman said: “The EU cannot allow beef imports into the European market which fail to meet EU standards across the key areas of traceability, food safety and animal health controls, animal welfare and environmental standards, including carbon footprinting.”

Help for some

An $11.4 million support package has been made available for dairy farmers in the Australian state of Victoria -the help has come after the major milk processors cut prices paid to suppliers due to the global dairy price crisis.

The fund includes a large amount of money from the Victorian government, as well as a $5.2 million industry contribution, comprising $1.4 million from the Gardiner Foundation, $2.8 million from Dairy Australia and up to $1 million from milk processor Murray Goulburn.

Support measures will include business support, financial counselling and support workers at United Dairy Farmers of Victoria (UDV).

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said: “We’re putting dairy farmers and their families first by providing them with the support they need to look after themselves - and each other. The Labour Government stands behind our rural communities, and we won’t let any farmer or community member go it alone.”

Keep your eye on the ball

Farmers and growers supplying directly to retailers must protect themselves from unfair trading practices by learning more about the way the Groceries Supply Code of Practice works, says food chain adviser Christine McDowell.

Christine tells me: “NFU members attending a training day run by British Brands Group learned more about how the code and its adjudicator, Christine Tacon, can help when suppliers face delays in payments, charges for customer complaints or the differences between a request and a requirement from retailers.

“I heard the delegates talk about many issues they face, all of which are covered in the code: excessive customer complaint charges, excessive packaging costs as a result of poor forecasting and ‘over-riders’ - excessive lump sum requests.

Ms McDowell also added: “It concerns me that these types of complaints are happening, and yet Christine Tacon hears very little from the supply base about issues they are facing.

“Fundamentally, it’s an issue of confidentially and suppliers’ fear of retailers knowing they have filed a complaint. Christine herself has highlighted her concerns that she hears very little from the supply base, due to confidentially concerns.”

A great example of this is her investigation into Tesco’s which concluded earlier in 2016. Christine came across a whole load of issues, which she was able to report on and make recommendations in a powerful way, without a single supplier’s identify or confidentiality being compromised.

Withholding evidence

The Countryside Alliance and Swansea University have criticised the RSPB on its use of unpublished data in scientific papers and has repeatedly refused to provide evidence to back up a serious claim it has made in one of these papers.

The RSPB has used unpublished data in a paper co-authored with the Zoological Society of London and published in the British Medical Journal, to claim that there have been 45 confirmed killings of hen harriers since records began. This figure is considerably higher than previously believed, with the RSPB’s published figures showing the confirmed shooting of 14 hen harriers. If there is other unpublished evidence for 31 further killings, then the authors must be able to support such a serious claim.

The RSPB is also criticised by Swansea University in the peer reviewed Biology Journal of the Royal Society. The paper, entitled ‘The role of fire in UK peatland and moorland management’*, which has been co-authored by leading international experts in their field, is also critical of the RSPB’s use of unpublished data, concluding that this can result both in unbalanced and unsupported reporting. It suggests that the RSPB has drawn conclusions based more on their personal views of certain patterns of land management, than on the weight of evidence.

Macsen Wledig?

Nobody knows of him! 1,600 years is too long a time for the memory.’ That’s a loose translation of the song that is sung at rugby games, pub nights and Nosweithiau Llawen in Wales and all over the world where a few Welsh people gather.

The song is Dafydd Iwan’s famous and rousing, Yma o Hyd, (still here) - it is but one of many patriotic songs, but there is a difference. More than any other song, it signifies a public decision taken by the Welsh nation on which course to take a pivotal fork in its history. Was it the song that changed history?

Until The Welsh Language Act of 1967, Welsh had no official status despite some concessions which had been won but the Welsh language still lived under the shadow of the 1536 and ’42 Laws in Wales Act.

Dafydd Iwan was a leading light of The Welsh Language Society and the society was there to reverse the pernicious effects of the Acts of Union and reverse the downward slide of the Welsh language.

He was also one of the first to self-consciously sing modern songs in Welsh. After all, why should Welsh people sing other people’s songs in other people’s language?

He was Bob Dylan without pseuds or Victor Jara without the guns. Dafydd Iwan did not strike a match; he struck a chord which sang through Wales.

In 1982, Dafydd Iwan had been on a moral boosting tour with the professional group Ar Log - the tour marked the 70th anniversary of Llywelyn’s death in Cilmeri and the theme tune of the tour had been the yomping ‘Cerddwn Ymlaen.’ (We will Walk On). Dafydd Iwan’s brain began ticking! As 1982 had been the 700th anniversary of Llywelyn’s death, then 1983 could be the 1,600 anniversary of the founding of the Welsh nation.

It was a simple message that despite everything, we were still here as a nation a thousand and a half years later. And that’s where, possibly, Iwan’s song changed Welsh history.

OK, not by itself, but it was a wake-up call.

As Barack Obama said in his inaugural speech ‘starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and begin again’…..the work of remaking Wales. After all, we are in the shadow of the most powerful language the world has ever known, it is therefore amazing that there’s anyone still speaking Welsh!

At an important junction in our history, Yma O Hyd made a decision and thousands of people sang that decision into life. It was a decision that we would will ourselves into being a nation and that nation would have a Welsh-speaking heart.

In 2036, Dafydd Iwan will be 92-year-old! If he is still writing and like Saunders, looking for an anniversary, may I suggest that he or we, write another song - that on the 500th anniversary of the Acts of Union that we set ourselves a target to totally erase from our forehead the dent caused by 500 years of the pointed finger which says ‘Taffy know your place.’

That we make Wales a proper nation where the majority of people can once again speak Welsh? Then we won’t just be Yma o Hyd, but singing a new song. (Contributed)