THE NFU has called on the Government to recognise the specific needs of our dairy industry to ensure it remains competitive in a post-Brexit era.

Deputy president Minette Batters said: “Currently the EU is UK dairy’s biggest trading partner, with 80 per cent of our exports going there.

“Any future deal with the EU must maintain two-way tariff-free trade in agricultural goods and must avoid costly and disruptive customs checks, processes and procedures.”

The UK was currently only 75 per cent self-sufficient in dairy produce, so there was a significant opportunity to be had in replacing imports, given the right production and processing incentives.

“Some industry experts have labelled this past summer a dairy labour crisis,” she said. “Today there are 43 adverts for dairy herdsmen in the Farmers Weekly and a backlog of jobs to fill with most dairy labour agencies.

“Dairy farms are closing not because of milk price, but because they can’t find able staff to take on the roles available.

“If government wants the dairy industry to produce more, consume more and export more, we need an urgent solution to the lack of availability of dairy farm labour – this cannot currently be filled by domestic or migrant workers.”

The government had to seize the day with the impending new Agriculture Bill, she added. The NFU was calling for greater market transparency to build greater trust across the supply chain and better market based risk management tools.

She said: “But for this to work we need mandatory price and volume reporting and better collaboration and trust between dairy farmers, their milk buyers and the wider supply chain.

“The short-term future is bright for British dairy farmers, but we need to make sure the policy is right on trade, labour and domestic agricultural policy to ensure that they can also thrive in the medium and long term.”