The farming industry is in crisis. But it does not mean they can inflict anarchy on the rest of the population, as seen recently in supermarkets.

The dairy sector is not alone, next will be the meat producers (beef and lamb).

Surely the farmers must now realise that the bubble has burst and that we live in a real world where supply and/or demand are the masters.

Since the demise of the Milk Marketing Board, which guaranteed farm gate prices, the industry has floundered from crisis to crisis. While the farmers know how to produce milk they have little experience of marketing! A sharp learning curve is on the cards.

Look at what is the UK milk supply; provisional production figures for the 2014/15 quota year totalled 41.4 billion litres, a massive increase of more than 700 million litres on the previous year. This has been the highest recorded level since milk quotas were introduced around 30 years ago and has been a significant factor in the collapse of the milk prices.

The knock-on effect of this UK high peak in milk supply will be with us for at least the remainder of the year or until stocks balance out, and it should come as no surprise that milk prices may still have to reduce further.

A Defra census for June 2014 shows an increase of 59,000 dairy cows added to the production chain when compared to June 2013. Supplies are unlikely to slow down in the near future and, if they did, it would have very little impact on UK demand for this year.

The situation might improve if the global market supplies reduce, while demand increases. However, this is highly unlikely to happen. At present with a weak Euro, this would have to significantly increase to improve any UK competitiveness on the European continent.

Increased demand from non-EU countries such as Brazil, New Zealand, India, China and Russia seem unlikely in the short term.

Russian sanctions are still in place, and China has reduced the intake of powdered milk for children, in favour of mothers feeding natural milk which is on the increase, even though they are limited to only produce one child per family.

Heinz in Kendal was a major supplier of powdered milk to China. They failed to get orders and have had massive redundancies.

Milk production has steadily increased in the EU since milk quotas were abolished. The same applies to non EU counties, which is seeing increases annually and don’t indicate a slowdown in the future.

Ironically, no industries leaders or the Government have shouted about reducing imports and using more of our home-grown products with the sign of the Farm Tractor and/or the Union Jack. Most of us consumers do support home-grown produce, at the right price.

Obviously, for political reasons this will not happen. If a tit for tat export and import exchange was to happen, we would be worse off.

Looking to the future any price increases from now on would only be achieved by reducing the supply chain both in UK and globally and that is unlikely to happen in the near future.

Farms with 500-plus milking herds are becoming the norm in the dairy industry. Farms with less milk herds are going to struggle and will have to diversify to remain viable. It is a hard fact!

The only answer for those who wish to survive in milk production is for a major overall of the milk industry and agriculture in particular. It will be absolutely essential to discard non profitable enterprises, imperative to reduce production costs and, more importantly, look at cash demands to ensure a profitable future.

Diversification must be a response if they wish to survive and remain in agriculture. Never by parading animals through supermarkets, which has done nothing for the cause.

Peter Crewe

Kendal