Reading the press over the first few weeks of the year sometimes the headlines can be quite depressing. “Farming Sector On Eve of Destruction” went one headline. “Exodus of Dairy Farmers Ahead of Incomes Halving” read another. The Northern Ireland Agricultural Producers Association and Farmers For Action called on Stormont ministers to help save the Northern farming sector after a major collapse in farm gate prices. In the UK Dairy farmers have seen prices drop 14 % on the year previous due to a “raging milk price war” brought on partly by softening demand in China and a ban on European imports from Russia. It all adds up to farming incomes falling in the Britain and falling at four times the rate of Britain in the North.
