It was great to once again be at UK Dairy Day in September and, despite the underlying worry of milk prices and high input costs, I think most farmers will have been glad to get out and chat to fellow farmers, visit trade stands and perhaps stand and admire some of the cows on show.
Speaking to trade stand exhibitors, despite the current mood within dairy farming, there were some meaningful conversations taking place about investments in genetics, technology and infrastructure.
However, I am mindful that not all farmers are positive about their own futures, as is highlighted by the NFU's recent Dairy Intentions survey and discussed by NFU dairy board chair in this month's Dairy Matters pages (see p14-15).
The panel sessions at UK Dairy Day were particularly well-attended and poignant, as they looked at the future of the dairy cow, milk pricing, the industry and farmers' businesses.
There was, of course, plenty of debate about milk pricing and, while there were probably no direct actions to come out of these discussions, it at least gave farmers a chance to say their piece.
And say our piece we must. We cannot just let these issues pass us by. We have to stand up for our industry.
Recently there has been news about earlier payments for some farmers who have secured Sustainable Farming Incentive agreements, but this clearly does not go far enough and only helping 鈥榮ome' farmers is clearly not good enough.
For more from UK Dairy Day click here.
