Around 200 farmers were at the ‘Our Industry, Our Future’ event at the Staffordshire County Showground, Weston Road, on Tuesday night (27 January) to have their say and hear from industry speakers.
The NFU West Midlands Dairy Conference was held to engage farmers and discuss the latest sector news as the union continues its lobbying and campaign work to benefit farm businesses.
NFU dairy board chairman Rob Harrison and his vice chairman Michael Oakes were at the conference alongside Dr Judith Bryans, chief executive officer of Dairy UK, Dr Duncan Pullar, DairyCo director and John Giles, Promar International director.
Mr Harrison highlighted the short term impact on farm and the need for those up the supply chain to understand what it means for the future.
He said: “This is our industry, our future and we have to try and move forward together. There’s also a huge amount of support and sympathy from consumers and we must build on that.”
Members heard it was difficult to predict what would happen in the spring and the sector was definitely “not out of the woods” but every effort would be made to help farm businesses going forward.
Farmers heard about the NFU’s work on cash flow, the supply chain, consumers, on regulation, contracts and working with the EU and Government.
The fight for functioning markets and fairer contracts, building on the gains seen from the Voluntary Code and the NFU’s work in other areas was also discussed including bovine TB, CAP and nitrate vulnerable zones.
A more detailed report on the meeting can be found here.