Accession recruitment plan to halt dairy dropout
marketing body for the UK milk industry, has issued advice to
farmers on recruiting labour from EU-accession member states - as
the number of people wanting to work in the industry continues to
drop, Tom Armitage reports.
The MDC claims that sourcing appropriate labour for milking and general work associated with running a dairy herd is becoming increasingly difficult, something which has subsequently forced dairy farmers to look at unconventional methods of labour recruitment.
Since 1 May 2004, when the EU accession treaty came into effect and added a further ten member-states into the EU region, it has become easier for workers in countries such as the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland to gain access to UK work permits.
"Although it is obviously disappointing that dairy farmers are unable to source UK labour, foreign workers have, however, previously proved themselves very keen to work very hard. Our intention is to provide farmers with unbiased advice on what can be a very complicated recruitment process," Charlotte Bullock, MDC's research and development manager told DairyReporter.com.
The last major study to assess the UK labour outlook in the UK dairy sector was compiled by Lantra, the Sector Skills Council for the Environmental and Land-based Sector, and the MDC in 2002.
The study found that dairy farm numbers are expected to decline to around 15,000 by 2008, while the total working dairy farm population will fall to around 44,000 (in 2001 it was 57,000 - representing a 25.5 per cent decline).
"I suspect that while the number of cows will remain relatively static over the coming years, the number of farm holdings will inevitably decrease. The bigger units will consolidate and become bigger and the smaller units will either fold or become absorbed," a source at Lantra commented.
Furthermore, the survey suggested that there were around 1,400 vacancies across the dairy industry per annum - a labour deficit that the MDC has since described as "small but significant."
One former Devon-based farmer claimed that the plummeting farmgate price of milk over the last decade has made it "nearly impossible to get a decent return on capital investment" - compromising farmers' margins and subsequently leaving them with a lowered budget spend on areas including recruitment and training and development.
"Business aside, dairy farming can be a terrific way of life," he added.
Despite recent pledges by nearly all of the UK's major milk processors, including Arla Foods and Robert Wiseman Dairies, to increase March farmgate milk prices, UK farmers are still faced with spiralling raw material costs - oil prices, for instance.
Farmers suggest that if UK consumers paid an extra 2p per litre on the price of milk, this would be enough to enable dairy businesses to make a profit.
"Until prices improve the industry will continue to struggle in attracting and retaining quality staff. Bad publicity, low returns and a poor public perception has not only demoralised those working in the industry but more importantly has discouraged young people to consider it as an attractive career option," the MDC said in its report.
