Dairy Farming

Yes. My right hon. Friend makes his point very effectively. There can be little doubt that the fluctuating price of liquid milk and the increasing cost of milk production have contributed significantly to the lack of confidence in the dairy industry in recent years. We have seen milk prices move from a low in 2006, when the average dairy farmer was estimated to be losing almost 5p per litre, to a high in 2008, when prices soared by up to 40 per cent. However, in the last year, as I said, the price has fallen back dramatically. Today, the price paid for milk is once again falling below the cost of production for many farmers. At the same time, production costs have increased by 27 per cent. since 2006, undermining much of the confidence that the industry regained in 2007 as prices increased. The think tank Open Europe has stated that the cost to farmers of UK regulation has more than tripled since the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs was created in 2001. I would welcome the Minister's response to that point and his comments on how he sees the future of farm regulation and what can be done to minimise the additional production costs that farmers face as a result of regulation. It is clear that this is not an isolated trend in the UK, and dairy farmers across Europe have faced challenging conditions. I spent part of last summer on a dairy farm in northern France, and the farmer and his family described a situation very similar to the one experienced by farmers in the UK. However, one difference in the French situation is that French agriculture receives huge political support across the board. No one can be a serious politician in France unless they are willing to stand time after time and speak up for French agriculture. Although hon. Members are well represented here, those present largely have significant dairy interests in their constituencies, and we need far more colleagues to speak up for farming who do not have dairy farms in their constituencies, but who nevertheless recognise the importance of dairy farming to the UK. In answer to parliamentary questions over the past year, the Secretary of State has reiterated his opinion that the UK dairy industry is in a much better position than most of its European competitors. However, the Farmers Union of Wales has suggested to me that if it were not for the current exchange rate, farm-gate prices would be likely to be about 30 per cent. lower. Does the Minister therefore accept that the industry's saving grace this year has been the weakness of sterling, rather than a fundamental strengthening of the sector? I would also welcome his comments on what needs to be done to ensure that UK dairy farmers can weather the storms created by volatile milk prices but still plan and undertake long-term capital investments so that they can stay competitive. Bovine tuberculosis is another area on which there has been a frustrating lack of progress in recent years. I have met farmers in my constituency whose cattle herds have been decimated by the disease. Indeed, two years ago I spent a Sunday with one of Pembrokeshire's leading dairy farmers, whose farm had just been hit by it. It was moving to see a strong man brought almost to tears by the decimation of his stock. It is not like losing a faulty batch of a widget on a production line. Farmers invest their lives in raising those animals, and they love them. When they must see a herd go off to be slaughtered, it is a moving and difficult thing. I recognise that that area of agriculture policy is devolved in Wales, and I take my hat off to the Welsh Assembly for taking some bold decisions in moving ahead with an eradication programme that includes a careful element of active wildlife management. I have put the question before to Ministers, and ask it again today: why, given that the scientific evidence base on which Welsh Assembly Ministers operate is identical to the one available to DEFRA, do English Ministers still refuse to recognise a role for a targeted cull as part of the plan? The Welsh Assembly has the same evidence and is moving ahead. There is a pilot programme in my constituency.