Dairy farmers have had to overcome disaster after disaster in recent years.

They have endured the ravages of BSE, flooding and the foot-and-mouth crisis.

Now they face a new threat to their livelihoods from the poor returns they receive providing the milk that makes up our daily pinta.

They receive as little as 13p per pint from the 40p or so we pay for our milk.

Farmers across Sussex joined others all over Britain who refused to supply their milk yesterday.

Gatwick farmer Alan Smith says the industry is in such a poor state only four of the 12 dairy farms operating when he started up in 1974 are still in existence.

Unless the Government acts to help the industry, we could soon be importing all our milk from Europe.