THE plight of dairy farmers is to be taken up by Bishop Auckland MP Helen Goodman.

She wants to meet ministers at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) following a visit to John Kirkup's Walker Hall dairy farm at Winston, near Barnard Castle.

One of the biggest milk producers in County Durham, he has 460 cows with 300 followers and an annual milk quota of 2.8m litres.

He receives a volume bonus payment but said things were tight because of the low price he receives.

Mr Kirkup, his wife, Christine, and sons Robert and Stephen farm in partnership with Guy Beadon.

They have twice decided to invest in dairying, once restocking after losing all 600 cows to the 2001 foot and mouth crisis and, more recently, installing a new milking parlour.

When they restocked, they received 21p per litre (ppl)and budgeted the new parlour on a figure of 20ppl.

Mr Kirkup said: "Now, the figure has dropped to 17.9 to 18ppl, which includes 2.7ppl as a volume bonus. We never dreamt it would fall so low."

They produce more than 10,500 litres a day, milking four hours every morning and night before tackling all the other farming operations.

However, at the same time as the milk price has dropped, feed costs have risen dramatically, as have other farm costs.

Mr Kirkup said: "It is tight. It is hand-to-mouth at the moment. I don't know how the smaller producers are coping."

Mrs Goodman praised the Kirkups' commitment and said it was time others, particularly supermarkets, paid better prices.

She will also ask ministers if British farmers compete on a fair basis with milk from other European countries.The UK's high animal welfare and hygiene standards already push up costs for producers.