DAIRY farmers face another devastating cut in milk prices from next month.

Suppliers to First Milk will see the liquid pool price fall by 1.4p per litre and that for the co-operative's manufacturing pool by 1.8p.

First Milk, which owns the Lake District Dairy Co, has hundreds of farmer members in Cumbria.

Dairy farmers across the UK have already seen prices cut by between 7p and 9p in just a few weeks as world demand continues to fall, primarily because of the Russian ban on EU produce and reducing demand from China.

First Milk chairman Sir Jim Paice said: “The major reason for this drop is that liquid and cheese returns have fallen over the last month. With cheese specifically, this impacts not only on what we are selling now, but on the price that we can sell our cheese stocks in the future.

“Additionally, we have been processing the majority of surplus milk supplied this year into skimmed milk powder. Returns from this market have declined further over the last month as many companies, particularly in mainland Europe, have increased stocks.

“The harsh reality is that prices are continuing to fall for dairy products everywhere in the world. As a board we have to balance the interests of individual farm businesses with the interest of the business owned by the same farmers. We have to set prices which reflect what we can achieve for the eventual product.

“We will continue to take whatever steps we can to reduce the impact of these negative market conditions, and ensure that the business is in the best possible shape when the market turns.”