By Pat Wilson

It’s certainly been a busy November – the Scottish Holstein Club (of which I’m secretary) held its agm and annual herds' prizegiving at the beginning of the month.

Not only winning the inspection, but a large proportion of the other prizes, was the Brewster family from Boclair, near Glasgow. The judge, Hugh Kennedy, quite rightfully described this herd as not only the best in the UK, but one that could hold its own outside the UK.

And, as if we need further proof, they have also recently been crowned the Holstein UK 'Premier pedigree herd'. The Brewster family have enjoyed success at many levels, but this just must be the icing on the cake – so, well done Jack, David and John.

AgriScot has come and gone for another year. The event was once again hailed a roaring success, attracting what is thought to be one of the highest ever attendance figures. I walked though the stands at lunchtime and it was certainly shoulder to shoulder, and this can only be good for the industry.

The highlight, though, had to be the tremendous show of top quality cattle in every breed. The distance travelled by some to compete was awesome. Unfortunately, the judge, Peter Prior, had to retire after just three classes because of severe back pain and the steward, Johnny Cousar, took over.

I am being biased, I know, but I just loved our home-bred heifer, Northshields Fever Gilberta, which stood a commendable third in a class of seven after only having calved a month ago. Although the SuperCow title went south of the Border, Scottish breeders still held their own among the top honours. Whether you stand first or last, the same amount of work and dedication is required.

Everyone taking part is passionate about what they do, so well done to every breeder – even if the result wasn’t what you would have hoped for. As the saying goes 'you can’t please all of the people all of the time'. It is, after all, only one man’s opinion.

The 'chat' at AgriScot was, of course, a lot about the weather. What else? It’s concerning to know that some farmers haven't even managed to get a first cut of silage.

I don’t remember a 'summer' as bad as this. Fingers crossed this is not how it’s going to be in future years.

The milk price reared its ugly head too at AgriScot! No-one is disputing that times are better than they were this time last year. However, here’s some food for thought …

If your boss walked into your place of work and said: “Sorry pal, you’ve to work for the next 20 years or so for the same money”! I’m sure – if not all of you, most of you – would be more than a little unhappy, not to put too fine a point on it!

But that’s just what milk buyers are expecting dairy farmers to do. My husband and his family moved to Carskerdo Farm, in Fife, more than 20 years ago and are getting today, what they got then for a litre of milk.

Now it doesn’t take a mathematician to work out that there’s something not quite right with that. The rate of inflation is the average rate at which prices increase and purchasing power falls. With a yearly inflation rate of 4%, customers can buy 4% less this year than they could last year with the same amount of money – so, basically, you need at least 4% more money just to stand still, before you start to worry about anything else.

The most efficient producers in Europe say the true cost of production is 40p/litre. The price of feed and fertiliser, to name only two commodities, have risen in price – in fact fertiliser is up £50/tonne. The vet doesn’t come cheap either.

The milk price just doesn’t add up. And to add insult to injury, we are being warned that consumers face the biggest butter shortage since World War Two – yes that’s more than 70 years ago.

Once upon a time, we were brain-washed into thinking butter was bad for us – those fears have been allayed and now we’re buying more butter than ever, but the problem is not enough milk and cream is being produced. This means not only is there a shortage, but wholesale butter prices have risen by 88% in one year.

This problem goes right back to the very poor milk price being paid last year, when some producers were being paid as little as 14 or 15p/per litre because of over production. Beef bulls were used then on many cows and now, there's just not enough dairy heifers in the pipeline to act as replacements.

Though, now that we are on a better footing, the easy answer would be – as in any industry – to produce more to meet demand. But, we’re all wary of that for fear of another price crash.

So, it may well not be cream you’re pouring on you Christmas pudding….

Does this mean that only the fittest will survive? There are only so many body blows you can take and now we are taking body blow after body blow – in fact, we’re getting kicked while we’re down there.

How many of you will readily admit that you could just 'throw in the towel'? Is our industry really on its last legs and will we soon become as dead as a dodo?

Most of us are probably guilty of taking dairy products for granted – they’re just there on the supermarket shelf, aren’t they? But years of falling milk prices could spell an end to what we take for granted.

All farmers, not just dairy farmers, work long, hard hours. I just smirk when my townie pals say: "Ah, it’s the weekend … I’m looking forward to my long lie and doing something with the kids!"

I think my kids suffer from PTS when they go back after their holidays when they hear that so and so had been to Florida and someone else has been to Cyprus, or Turkey. I think our two hang back and try not to be asked where they’ve been!

But we love our cows; we’re passionate about them. Let’s face it you’d have to, or you couldn’t do this job. Who else would work for little or no return.

This is when the minimum wage gives me a real laugh. I divided the number of hours put in per week and average drawings from the farm and I know who is better off per hour!

Do the supermarkets have too much control over a commodity that 99% of us use? I think they drive the price down because they can.

Five years ago, farmers blockaded milk processors in protest at the low prices they were paid. Is it time for a repeat performance?