When farming is its own worst enemy

ONE OF life’s certainties is the ability of the UK farming sector to shoot itself in the foot.

This week the much-anticipated super merger between dairy co-ops First Milk and Milk Link collapsed into a pile of cow pooh, prompting headline writers around the country to work on puns that included the words “milk” and “sour”.

The merger, had it gone ahead, would have created a new £1bn giant that, for the first time, might have been capable of living with the big boys of the dairy world.

After a decade of talking up co-operatives and strength in numbers, it seemed that UK farming was about to get something right.

What makes the failure even more galling is that the competition authorities had given the deal the green light.

Yes, the same people who, for the past 15 years, had bust a gut to emasculate the industry by fragmenting dairy groups.

It doesn’t bode well for the lamb sector either: here’s an industry with, essentially, only two producers - Britain and New Zealand.

Imagine what they could achieve if every farmer got together.

But it’s often said that a farmer’s biggest business foe is his own neighbour: when you’re constantly peering over the hedge, it’s difficult to countenance co-operation.