SIR, – It was with disappointment that we read the article ‘Call to abolish DairyCo’ in The Scottish Farmer, July 17.

While DairyCo cannot lobby on behalf of dairy farmers for milk price increases, we work consistently to ensure that market information is fully available so that lobbying organisations and farmers and their representatives have reliable, independent and unbiased information on which to build their case.
The range of activities undertaken by DairyCo covers far more than “looking into the best use of forages, improved fertility and nutrition.” although these are important aspects of an efficient dairy farm.  For example, any farmer who uses bull proofs and PLI is using DairyCo Breeding+, no matter which breeding company he buys from. The genetics analysis for the PLI is done by SAC under contract to DairyCo providing independent and reliable bull proofs. The benefit of genetic improvement is estimated to be worth well in excess of £10m each year to the dairy industry – an extremely high return for the levy investment.
DairyCo also has a priority to manage the image of dairy farming – promoting positive messages to consumers on animal health and welfare, and dairy farming’s commitment to minimising its impact on the environment.  Our new consumer facing website www.thisisdairyfarming.com is just one part of this work.
Heather Wildman and Sophie Kinnear are our regional extension officers, working with farmers on the ground in Scotland to facilitate discussion groups, open meetings and the work taking place on the monitor farms.  They are receiving a great deal of positive feedback about the value of these initiatives to dairy farming businesses. We have also recently added Jim Samson, our Milkbench+ officer for Scotland, who is working closely with farmers who want to benchmark their businesses using the Milkbench+ system.
The DairyCo board members (eight of us are dairy farmers) and the DairyCo team welcome the opportunity to discuss the work we do with any levy payer who has a query. It’s important to us, that farmers know about the full range of services that they can benefit from via their levy.  These can also be accessed from our website www.dairyco.org.uk.
As levy payers ourselves we are absolutely dedicated to ensuring every penny of the levy received is spent for the benefit of dairy farmers in Britain. 

 

Stewart Jamieson,
Dumfriesshire
Kenny Campbell,
Kirkcudbrightshire
DairyCo board members