Letter: Loss of milk board was start of decline
The decline of the dairy industry particularly in an agricultural county like Shropshire should be of great concern to us all.
Until some years ago it was a thriving backbone to Shropshire farmers. The Milk Marketing Board (MMB) controlled, supervised and managed the milk industry with a gentle guiding hand.
The never failing monthly milk cheque was the lifeline to dairy farmers. The price of milk both to the producer and consumer was always fair and just.
Now, alas, it is chaos with dairy farmers giving up and those remaining having to go on strike to force the wholesalers to pay the barest minimum.
Meanwhile milk is being imported from as far away as Poland. UK exports of cheese and other dairy products have been decimated from previous MMB levels and all this is because there is no longer a MMB.
Why? Because the EU demanded that it be abolished and we are all in various ways paying for this draconian diktat.
The only hope for the future is to leave the EU and take control of our once great British milk industry and there is only one political party that 100 per cent wants that to happen.
The spurious so-called subsidies from the EU to be replaced by a British Single Farm Payment Scheme.
When spring comes just look over the hedges and see just how many cows you see in the fields compared to the past.
Ken Tyrrell, Shrewsbury
