Dairy farmers are seeking a better price for the cost of their milk

Farmers, who say they are earning less per litre now than they were five years ago, will be converging on the UK's largest milk distribution plant in Warwickshire to make their point.

In the last five years a third of the dairy farms in Kent and Sussex have gone out of business.

In 1997 there were nearly 500 dairy farmers, but by 2002 that was down to below 350.

Dairy farmers cannot go on receiving prices below the real cost of production William White, NFU South East Food and Farming Adviser

Those that are left say they are earning less than at any time since the Milk Marketing Board was disbanded over a decade ago.

Thursday night's peaceful protest will emphasise that a 2p per litre rise in the farm-gate price for liquid milk is vital to the future of the industry.

Among the protesters at Dairy Crest's flagship distribution centre and cheese factory in Nuneaton will be farmers from Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.

Farmers argue that although the biggest retailers - the supermarkets - have put up the price of milk, they are not seeing any of the extra cash.

Drop in farm-gate prices

At the moment they get an average price of 17p for every litre of milk they sell.

Five years ago they earned an average of 24p a litre.

Virtually all of them sell their milk through a co-operative to producers, and farmers say it is the producers who have to pass on some of their profits.

NFU South East Food and Farming Adviser William White said: "Dairy farmers cannot go on receiving prices below the real cost of production.

"Six years of poor prices have forced the milk industry to contract alarmingly.

"Those remaining in milk production have made investments for the future and it is only fair that they should receive a price above the true cost of production."