German visit lifts spirits (From Western Telegraph)

German visit lifts spirits

Competition from the German dairy industry holds no fears for Pembrokeshire's milk producers.

A group of the county's dairy farmers travelled to Hanover last week courtesy of Gelli Aur College, Carmarthenshire, and concluded that they were five years ahead of their German counterparts.

Anthony Bushell, of Northeast Farm, Walton East, said farmers appeared to be locked into high cost systems. Cows were housed for 365 days a year with no access to grazing.

"These farmers were at the point that we were at five years ago. I certainly didn't regard them as a real threat,'' he said. "We have a great advantage in that we can produce milk cheaper here.''

The average milk price in Germany is currently 19p a litre but the signs point to an imminent price fall. Equipment was complex and sophisticated, but the visitors felt that German farms were over-capitalised.

One of the farms the party was taken to was an ex-collective farm in former East Germany. The farm was 2,300 hectares but its dairy herd only numbered 400 cows.

"Milk production was only a minor proportion of the business. As was the case with other farms, arable production was a priority,'' said Mr Bushell. He saw the visit as an opportunity to see a good cross-section of European dairy farmers in the company of representatives of banks, milk buyers, feed companies and land agents. There were also farmers representing the YFC, NFU and FUW.

"It was a wonderful networking opportunity to help us plan our futures with more confidence. We are grateful to the staff of Gelli Aur and the Welsh Development Agency for making the visit possible.''

Part of the study tour was spent at the European Dairy Farmers' Conference. The object of the four-day visit was to establish a European perspective on the dairy industry and on the enlargement of the European Union. There was also a focus on the differing costs of production across the European nations.