SOME GREEN shoots are appearing for our beleaguered milk industry, with spot prices on the increase, the dairy cattle trade improving and contract prices at last moving upwards slightly following two years of decline.
However, restraint must be the order of the day if things are to gain some momentum. There is a real chance that a milk shortage is on the cards and there is a strong argument for the industry to try and keep it that way.
Just how that could be done is not clear when carrots and sticks from the trade are involved, but there must be some way both the industry itself and government can come up with some supply management plan to stop a roller-coaster ride in an industry which cannot switch the gas on and off very easily.