Call for a code of conduct to ‘unite’ the production chain

During the meeting, producers also continued to back the call for a voluntary code of conduct between the various links in the milk supply chain.

NFUS president Nigel Miller, who will lead the Scottish delegation to the special milk crisis meeting in London tomorrow, said that if this was not forthcoming he would be pushing the politicians both in Scotland and the UK for such a code to be made compulsory.

He admitted that, up until now the UK minister, Jim Paice, had preferred the voluntary route, with his officials in Defra believing that “regulation was the work of Satan”.

The union will also push for a reinstatement of the pre-April price prior to the first round of cuts being implemented. Union vice-president Allan Bowie put his neck on the line, saying he believed that it was possible to get 2p or possibly 3p per litre of the money back.

When he was questioned on this possibility, he retorted it could happen if “we continue to turn up the heat” on the issue.