A WILDLIFE-FRIENDLY brand of milk developed in the North-East could end up reversing the trend for intensive farming across the country.

Agri-Trade, a farmers' buying consortium based at High Etherley, near Bishop Auckland in County Durham, has spent three years developing the brand with The Wildlife Trust and the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG).

The idea behind White 'n' Wild - Milk on the Wild Side is to pay farmers more for their milk while signing them up to a scheme where they farm in a more environmentally friendly way.

It will also come as a much needed boost to dairy farmers emerging from the foot-and-mouth crisis.

The brand was the brain child of Ken Whitley, managing director of Agri-Trade and the company's chairman, Ray Simpson.

Said Mr Whitley: "We realised that intensive farming has played havoc with British wildlife and we could come up with a commercial solution to arrest this trend so that farmers can farm in a sensitive way.

"We will be paying farmers more but in order to get them off the intensive farming treadmill we'll be paying them to change their practice to a more sustainable, environmentally friendly one."

For the scheme to work, the farmer's will agree to follow a bio-diversity action plan drawn up by FWAG members, such as agreeing to only cut hedgerows at certain times of the year in order to allow wildlife to flourish. They will then be visited to see if they keep to the plan.

Another company is being set up, Agri-Care Dairy Products Ltd, with partners including Integrated Marketing and Advertising based in Manchester, to take the product forward.

Mr Whitley said the company plans to produce semi-skimmed and full-fat milk initially. But if the average shopper decides they are happy to pay a bit extra to ensure the intensive farming trend is halted, they plan to expand with other dairy products such as ice cream, yoghurts and cheese.

They are planning to launch the brand early next year and are hoping the foot-and-mouth restrictions will have eased by then.

"We've already had a very good response from the supermarkets about stocking it nationwide," added Mr Whitley.