Milk producer organisations get green light
The Welsh government has given
dairy farmers the green light to set up
producer organisations.
In a statement issued on Friday 14
June, Wales' farm minister Alun
Davies gave his backing to dairy
producer organisations (DPO) and
announced that farmers could begin
setting them up.
But Mr Davies said DPOs had to have
a membership of at least 10 producers
in order to be big enough to be viable.
Not only must they have a minimum
membership of 10 dairy farmers, but
the volume of raw milk produced by
these farmers must collectively be at
least 6m litres a year.
In giving Welsh DPOs a green
light, Mr Davies said: "I am pleased
to announce that dairy producers
who are now in a position to
consider setting up a DPO can do so
immediately."
In a further move, the minister has
Farming Express. Page 5
in England, with some Welsh milk
returned for Welsh consumers.
Mr Davies said adding value to milk
established a Dairy Task Force for
must be a priority for the Welsh dairy
Wales to advise him on developing
industry and he wants to build on the
a strategic vision for the Welsh dairy success of the protected geographical
industry.
indication (PGI) status in place for
"The task force will consider the
Welsh beef and Welsh lamb.
challenges faced by the dairy supply Currently no Welsh cheeses have a
chain and will advise me on any
protected name designation. "This is
structures or measures that need to be obviously something we need to put
put in place," he explained.
right in order to give Welsh cheeses
Only half of all Welsh milk is
the recognition they deserve," said the
processed in Wales, mainly into
minister.
cheese, while liquid milk is processed
Shropshire farm imports £10,000 of Italian bee
A Shropshire farm has imported £10,000
worth of bees from Italy after losing twothirds of its stock following months of poor
weather.
The Plymouth Estate, at Bromfield, near
Ludlow, has lost more than 100 hives in the
past 12 months.
But farm owners moved quickly to refill
stocks by transporting the bees over to
the UK in a lorry. The bees pollinate farm
crops and make the honey which is then
sold in the farm shop, Ludlow Food Centre
(www.ludlowfoodcentre.co.uk).
Richard Lindsey, the farm's beekeeper,
visited the estate on Monday (17 June) and
he took the bees to their new hives and let
them get settled.
"We introduced thousands of bees to their
new home on our estate," said Tom Hunt,
Ludlow Food Centre's marketing manager.
"Over the last year we have lost 102 of
our 150 hives which is extremely sad. To
repopulate ou "