The daily struggle for Shropshire farmers in milk price row

Today they spoke of the human cost of falling milk prices and their daily struggle to survive financially.

It comes as farmers pledge to restart direct action, with picketing of dairies in Shropshire expected to resume this week.

Handouts to farmers would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.

But today a warning was given that a whole generation of dairy farmers are at risk of simply disappearing.

And the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institute says it is seeing more cases of having to help rural families who simply cannot make ends meet.

Shropshire's farmers in financial need received almost £94,000 in grants last year – the fourth highest payout in England and Wales.

Rabi says Shropshire sits behind only Somerset , North Yorkshire and Devon in money given out.

More than 50 individuals or families were helped, some with nursing home top-up fees and home help costs, but others simply to get through the working week.

Nationally, the charity sent 865 Christmas hampers to beneficiaries and helped people claim state benefits.

Rob Harris, of Rabi, said: "It's a myth that all farmers are wealthy – many live on or below the poverty line. We help in many different ways and every case is different.

"It may be a farmer who has had an accident who needs help paying for temporary labour while he recovers, or a family with a severely reduced income who need help with food and heating costs.

"We also give regular grants to retired people of limited means and in Shropshire we specifically help a lot of older people by providing nursing home top-up fees and contributing towards home help costs. Every year, new people ask Rabi for help. Whatever the reasons, their problems are rarely of their own making and their pleas never made out of choice."

Members of Farmers For Action say the current situation is "terrible" and say farmers are still being forced to give up the industry.

They are planning more protests in Shropshire, starting from this week.

FFA member Paul Rowbottom said: "Farmers simply can't afford to live and this is no way to carry on.

"Farmers' cheques are bouncing. I have been in my job about 25 years and I have not seen anything like it.

"We have got to see some big changes in the market place and hopefully make processors be more careful about things.

"You can't carry on creating milk if it is not needed. There needs to be better control of output to be able to make a profit.

Unions and farmers have spoken about their fears for the future of the industry if cuts to milk prices continue.

The comment comes amid problems for farmers who say they are running out of cash and are left with nearly no options.

Rod MacBean, 53, farms in Aston, near Wem, and says things are getting worse and worse.

"I don't think any farmer could be optimistic about the short term future," he says.

"We keep getting told that the long term future is positive but we were told that two or three years ago.

"We are investing awful lots of money in technology to meet the demand that is sold to us that we are told is coming."

Wrong

Mr MacBean adds: "But every single expert seems to have got it wrong. We are the ones that live with it. Farmers are the ones that carry the can."

Neale Sadler, 45, from Edstaston near Wem, adds: "The milk price we have got at the moment is very similar to what it was 25 years ago – but our costs are far higher now.

"Though we have got more efficient, because we have had to. There is no more slack in the system.

"It has been going on now for about nine months – but we can't see an end to it.

"People are waiting to get out of the market.

"They have no other choice. You can't carry on not making any money.

"I have never been in a position before where I choose the bills that I pay depending on priority."

Mr MacBean says: "I too select which bills to pay first. But suppliers are now starting to be affected too – they need the money more quickly because their cash flow is starting to stop up.

"They are now getting worried too."

Campaign group Farmers For Action has warned it could be protesting at major dairies this week, although no location or date has yet been announced.

But Mr MacBean says it is not only the processors who are to blame.

He adds: "The processors can't take all the blame, but they have to take some because of the way they operate.

"Some are doing very well. They have simply been playing the game as well as they should.

"But the smaller processors which are very good employers locally, they have their prices dictated by the bigger processors. There is nothing they can do.

"Some processors use the milk price to solve their issues. They knock a penny off their milk price and all their problems have gone."

Processors have said they too are struggling in the market against competitors – German company Muller-Wiseman said it had entered into a 30-day period of consultation with staff as it sought to make "operational efficiencies" which could see up to 43 jobs axed.

And while the financial problems have made the headlines among farming communities, many fear the impact it has on families and individuals.

According to the Farming Community Network, farmers are almost three times as likely to commit suicide than the average UK citizen.

Mr MacBean says: "Farmers are reluctant to speak out and show their feelings a lot of the time.

"There are people I know – two who are having serious problems. They don't show it but they have serious family issues because of the pressure they are under.

"It really does manifest itself in the family situation."

Farmer and National Farmers' Union vice president, Guy Smith voiced his concerns at an industry conference last week.

He said milk is at an "irresponsibly low price" and called on supermarkets to do something about it.

The current price farmers are paid by processing giants such as Muller-Wiseman and Dairy Crest sits between 23.2 pence per litre and 25.1ppl.

But with the cost of milk production at almost 30ppl, farmers say they are making a loss.

Mr Smith said: "Retailers should look in the mirror and make a decision to sell it for a decent price and push some of the profit back to dairy farmers who are in danger of going out of business."