FARMERS have been urged to improve levels of production and efficiency for years, and while many have in a bid to boost profit margins, such are the overwhelming challenges facing all sectors of the industry, that many producers will never be able to make ends meet, let alone an actual profit.

Climate change, global market prices, exchange rates, greedy retailers and the UK government, appear to have joined forces to kill off Scottish farming plc and indeed farmers, as ex-farm prices remain stubbornly low while input costs soar year on year.

Rory Christie's radical move to once a day milking at Dourie Farms, is just one case that comes to mind. How can milk producers expect to pay bills, support a family and contribute to the local economy, when the price they are paid for a litre of milk, can half within a year, and yet all input costs continue to rise year on year.

If Michael Gove wants farmers to produce food to the highest animal welfare standards in this country and indeed the world, he has surely got to look after the farmers who are producing it, as well as stand up to retail giants who continue to squeeze every last penny out of their producers.

Granted, virtually all farmers are price takers, but there comes a time surely when government intervention is required to curtail the overwhelming power the supermarkets have over their producers, or are farmers now slaves to the supermarkets and their share holders, who don't even pay the minimum wage when you consider the 24/7 hours farmers have always put into their businesses?

It's not just dairy farmers who are on their knees; beef and sheep farmers are also constantly having to plead with their bank managers for extended loans. But then, store and prime lamb prices remain very much on a par with those paid 35 years ago, with, the cost of breeding cattle and bulls, also remaining similar.

Add in the huge increase in feed, bedding, housing, labour, vet and med costs and farmers are under huge pressure to make ends meet and with a reduced workforce, so, it comes as no surprise that farming is now one of the most dangerous professions in the country and one which is fast witnessing higher numbers of suicides.

Scottish and indeed British farmers are renowned for producing some of the best food in the world so come on Mr Gove, is it not about time you stood up for UK farmers because you won't get anybody who is harder working or care more about their livestock, crops or the countryside than a farmer.