I'd like to be full of festive cheer, but...

Then in the press I see a report that makes my heart sink.

Imagine, your business depends on selling a product to a limited number of companies, who hold the purse strings. They sometimes up the price they'll pay and then suddenly drop it again, all in the name of keeping the company viable and the market reliable.

So Muller, our local dairy company, which is actually German, was paying their milk suppliers 28ppl (pence per litre) in August. In September they upped it by 1.5ppl. Hurrah. However, the wonderful sunny weather we enjoyed this year has severely affected grass and fodder growth, and experts say this will have put the cost of production of one litre up by 2p. So that's a loss of half a pence.

Added to this, Muller has announced that in January 2019 they will drop their price by 0.5ppl. This doesn't really sound much, but put in context, the average annual yield per cow is 7,500 litres. The average UK herd size is between 150 and 400. So 300 cows producing 7,500 litres is over two million litres. Taken with the rise in production cost, a drop in income of 5p a litre is a huge financial blow.

So sorry for all these hideous figures, but the enormity of the results of Muller dropping their price is almost unbelievable without the details.

So you are working away at your job, whatever it is, and suddenly, just before Christmas you are told your income is going to be heavily cut and there is nothing you can do about it. You would feel pretty scared. Add to this, the sector you work in is controlled by similar companies, all based overseas and to try to move to another "employer" would be from pan to fire.

So on this cheery note, have a jolly festive season and New Year. Buy lots of dairy products, preferably as British as you can get, and support our food security for the future.

Rosemary Allen is a retired livestock farmer now living near Ellesmere