West Berkshire dairy farming in decline

Situation 'unsustainable' says MP

SMALL scale dairy farming in West Berkshire could be in terminal decline.

The warning came after figures released by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) revealed nearly one in 10 dairy farms across England and Wales have closed in the last three years.

And Berkshire saw the greatest rate of decline, with a third of farms closing.

Newbury MP Richard Benyon said: “No one would be happier than me to see dairy farming flourish again in West Berkshire. But I fear that, before that can happen the necessary infrastructure and support, including veterinary provision, will be gone.”

The AHDB said in many cases it now cost farmers more to produce a litre of milk than they were paid for it.

Dairy farmer Angus Hodge, from Padworth, acknowledged the crisis and said: “The last couple of years have been a struggle with the milk price dropping and we’ve had to trim our costs.

“But it’s cyclical and I believe there is light at the end of the tunnel. We’re here for the duration and we’ve just got to get through until the milk price picks up."

However Mr Hodge, who keeps 220 cows, said he knew “quite a few” colleagues who had given up on dairy farming. He said this was partly down to the economic strictures and partly down to the associated lifestyle.

Mr Hodge said: “Cows have to be milked twice a day, 365 days a year and it’s a 4am to 7pm job, not nine to five.”

Mr Benyon said: “Some supermarkets have used milk as a loss leader and the cost of producing a litre of milk is more than the farmer gets paid. That’s unsustainable.

“But a lot of the negative effects on the industry are global.

“I would personally love to see dairy farming flourishing locally again but farms with, say, 150 cows are hardly viable any more and it may be that only the larger ones will survive.”