The reason being that the worldwide shortage of dairy products will take a minimum of five years to turn around, assuming it ever does. Anybody who thinks any differently is living in cloud cuckoo land.

So, fellow dairy farmers, now that the shoe is firmly on the other foot, why don’t we ‘milk the situation for all it is worth’?

Why not, for instance, draw up a contract for the buyers of your milk? It could be something as follows:

• You should be prepared to pay the price your producer group deems necessary to cover his costs and leaves room for a return on capital.
  
• A decent wage for all the hours worked.
  
• You should let we, the producers, farm our cows without interference, providing they meet the required criteria on milk quality and have a vet’s certificate to say the stock is in good condition and being looked after properly. (Anything else is just creating unnecessary extra costs with no real benefits to anybody).
  
• Money for future investment .

Believe you me, we, as producers, have never before been in such a good position to be price makers rather than price takers

Source: Farmers Guardian