Nottinghamshire dairy farmers hit by price wars

This comes after First Milk, one of the UK’s largest dairy cooperatives said supermarket’s constant price wars trying to reduce costs had left them in money trouble.

Cheques and subsequent payments to suppliers have been delayed by up to a fortnight.

It is unknown how many of the 40 dairy farmers in the county supply to the First Milk.

National Farmer’s Union Nottinghamshire spokesman, Simon Fisher, said the future of the county’s dairy farming industry looked uncertain.

Mr Fisher said the number of farms in the county - even though not a traditionally strong area - had reduced in recent years.

He said: “The problem dairy farmers have and the general trend is that prices are being squeezed ad squeezed and squeezed.

“The future and sustainability of dairy farming is very much in doubt.

“Farmers can not keep going on making losses.”

A large percentage of the county’s milk production goes to making Stilton cheese, on the Vale of Belvoir - on the border of Nottinghamshire.

First Milk supplies supermarkets such as Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons 1.2bn litres of milk each year and 50,000 tonnes of cheese.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? To email us your thoughts on this story CLICK HERE