A new survey has revealed that farmers get about 16p a litre for their milk. This is about 4p a litre less than it costs them to produce. Those of us who buy milk delivered to the doorstep know it costs about 40p a pint, which is equivalent to about 70p a litre.

The 54p gap is interesting. Eight per cent of milk producers gave up the unequal struggle in the year 2000 alone.

There are now no milk producers in our parish. During the century's major farming depression, in the 1930s, the milk cheque was the only thing that kept many farmers afloat.

The regular cash that came in, each and every month, enabled people to feed themselves and to pay the bills.

I doubt that the most recent dip in the price to the farmer has been reflected either on the supermarket shelf or in the delivered price.

Lord Haskins, Government expert on just about everything rural, and past Chairman of Express Dairies, tells us that the argument about security of food supply no longer applies.

The consumer must be allowed to pay as little as humanly possible for their food.

We must hope that he is right about security of supply. The chances of there being large quantities of milk from the farm assured, UK sources do not look very promising at the moment.

I wonder how much of the gap between the farmers' price and the final consumers' price goes into his company's pocket?

Milking cows is not a very social activity. They have to be milked at least twice a day, every day, whether it is Christmas, New Year or the children's birthday.

The figures sometimes do not look too bad if members of the family do the work.

I am a bit lost as to why UK agriculture should expect to rely on unpaid family labour to make ends meet.

The same survey says that the final consumers would not mind paying a little more, if they knew the extra was going to the farmer producers.

They would say that, wouldn't they?

Apart from anything else it would be almost impossible to organise and consumers know it.

Everyone else along the supply chain would want their cut of a higher price.

The proportions would still be the same, even if the total price to the consumer was a bit more.

Food in Britain is cheap and of good quality. We know it is cheap because we only spend about ten per cent of our income on it.

If it was not good, why are people living for so long?

Perhaps there ought to be support from the European Authority for Picturesque Cows.

This would provide for the cows to be kept in areas of the country where they have been kept traditionally, and for them to be milked and looked after, so that the amenity value of that neighbourhood would not be spoiled.

There would, however, have to be some system for getting rid of the inevitable cow muck.

It would never do for the non-farming populace to be inconvenienced. I recall the tale of one newcomer to a village saying that she had come to the countryside to see cows, not to smell them.

Sadly, it is a matter of cause and effect.

I have never got on particularly well with cows.

They really hurt when they stand on your foot.

The way things are going it will not be a problem for much longer, and another part of the industry, in which the UK once led the world, will be a quaint museum piece.

Updated: 10:39 Tuesday, August 13, 2002