photo courtesy of www.jennifermackenzie.co.uk

HELP us to help you sort out this industry once and for all was the message NFU's national dairy board chairman, Gwyn Jones, conveyed to north west farmers when he came to the region to present them with the NFU's recently published 'Vision for the Dairy Industry'.

"Ask yourself are we going to make a difference and are we going to be better? You have a choice, either we shape our industry for ourselves or wait for someone else to come along and do it for us and believe me that's what will happen," Gwyn Jones told hundreds of north west farmers at a range of venues around the region.

Those venues included The Shepherd's Inn at Carlisle, Cumbria and Myerscough College in Garstang, Lancashire.

The NFU's Vision for the Dairy Industry sets out a strategic vision for the British Dairy Industry. It is intended to challenge the industry, to provoke debate and ultimately stimulate activity amongst the industry's principal actors - farmers, milk buyers, customers, regulators and the Government.

In doing this, it challenges a number of well held and respected industry beliefs which could be seen as controversial and at odds with many people both in and out of dairy farming.

At the meetings, Gwyn said: "I believe there is huge inefficiencies in dairy processing that creates massive wastage. I want this sorting out and have placed this problem very firmly at the door of Dairy UK.

"We have to tie our milk to fixed contracts. If we had companies that knew what milk they were going to get off farmers, they would be able to fix prices.

"If farmers think their milk ceases to be their responsibility when it goes into the tanker then they are wrong. If farmers want to think like that then fine but there is a huge price to pay for it because they are not keeping an eye on inefficiencies.

"There is only one group of people in this chain who pay for inefficiencies and that's the primary producer.

" Milk in Waitrose supermarkets all comes from Waitrose contracted farms and in my opinion there is no reason why the other supermarkets would not follow suit. If the processors want to behave like contractors then quite frankly that's how we should treat them.

"It's taken the NFU 18 months to put its vision together. Nobody is enjoying this industry at the moment and there is definitely a mood for change.

"We have to start uncovering these inefficiencies within processing. An independent audit of processing premises would not be a bad thing because farmers need to know if the processing businesses they are supplying are well run and have a forward thinking strategy.

"Every processor to a man wanted to come and talk to the NFU about the Vision for the Dairy Industry, the question is are farmers going to allow this document to gather dust or are we all going to do something about it?

"Providing a vision document is really as far as the NFU should go but I am willing to take this further and assist in turning the vision into reality if farmers give me their support."

Cumbrian County Chairman, Alistair Mackintosh, thanked Gwyn for visiting the region and said of him: "I liken his job to pushing a barrow of frogs up a hill - they could all jump out but I have faith in the man that is pushing this particular barrow.

"I find it refreshing to sit next to a man who is obviously a leader and has a lot of bravery for putting a document like this together."

Copies of 'Vision of the Dairy Industry' are available from the NFU's regional office. Please contact senior food and farming adviser Adam Briggs on 01696 554913 if you'd like a copy.