(16 Sep 2009)
++AERIAL SHOTS++
1. Wide tracking shot of tractors and milk containers spraying milk over field
2. Farmers gathered in field with vehicles, pull out to wide of field
3. Zoom in to tractors spraying milk
4. Wide of milk being sprayed
5. Close-up of milk being sprayed, pull out to show lines of spraying vehicles
++GROUND SHOTS++
6. Various of milk being sprayed
++GROUND SHOTS++
7. Various of tractors spraying milk
8. Group of farmers and their families watching
9. SOUNDBITE: (French) Xavier Delwarte, president of FUGEA (Belgian United Federation of Animal Breeders and Farmers Groups):
"We have been suffering very badly for over a year now, but in the past few months it has become really impossible, and our financial situation is very, very dire."
10. Children turning tap on mini milk container
11. SOUNDBITE: (French) Martine Lameau, dairy farmer from Luxembourg province, Belgium:
"It is such a tough job. If we don't earn a little bit of money, what's the point of still doing it even if it's a beautiful job? It's true it is a great job, but it has become very discouraging."
12. Tractors pulling containers spraying milk
STORYLINE:
Belgian dairy farmers on Wednesday dumped three million litres (790-thousand gallons) of fresh milk onto fields in the south of the country, as part of a protest over low milk prices which they claim are threatening them with financial ruin.
Milk farmers' cooperatives said prices had dropped so low that they had to sell milk at half the cost it took to produce it, leaving increasing numbers of farmers unable to pay their bills.
To highlight the crisis, farmers driving some 300 tractors and milk containers sprayed milk across fields near the town of Ciney - a spillage representing the loss of a day's worth of milk production in the southern half of Belgium.
Milk prices have fallen by 40 percent since spring, according to EU farmers group Copa, which warns that without European Union intervention, farmers could lose 10 billion euros - 14 billion US dollars - in income.
Xavier Delwarte, president of the Belgian farmers' union FUGEA (United Federation of Animal Breeders and Farmers Groups), said milk producers had been suffering from the financial effects of low prices for more than a year, but the past few months had become "really impossible."
"Our financial situation is very, very dire," he added.
Dairy farmer Martine Lameau said the current situation may drive people to give up farming completely.
"If we don't earn a little bit of money, what's the point of still doing it even if it's a beautiful job?" she asked.
The Belgian farmers were joined by colleagues from around the EU on Wednesday, as growing frustration with the economic downturn has led to widening protests across the region in recent weeks.
On Tuesday, farmers closed Belgian border crossings to the Netherlands and Germany to push demands for higher prices, and some milk farmers in France and other EU nations have halted deliveries.
The European Milk Board farmers' group said up to half of milk farmers in some areas were refusing to deliver their milk and predicted the first shortages could hit some supermarkets as early as next week.
To raise milk prices from the current 18 to 24 euro cents (0.26 to 0.35 US dollars) a kilo to the 40 cents (0.58 US dollars) they say is required to cover costs, the farmers are demanding tougher EU production quotas.
But the EU opposes tougher quotas, seeking instead to abolish the practice to let market forces have a stronger influence on production.

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