UK: Dairy farmers picket Dairy Crest

Outraged by a steady rise in milk production costs in the face of sluggish remuneration, UK dairy farmers were today continuing to picketing a number of distributors in Wales and the Midlands, including Dairy Crest in Warwickshire.The protest has been masterminded by Farmers For Action, a farming pressure group which has also been key to the ongoing campaigning for a cut in fuel taxes. The problem with milk is that it tends to be viewed as a commodity, so distributors find it hard to pass higher production costs on to consumers.Worcestershire farmer John Weston said that Dairy Crest, one of the country's leading milk distributors, is paying farmers 16.5 pence per litre - six pence less than it costs farmers to produce the milk.