Protest group Farmers for Action led a blockade of the Muller Wiseman dairy at Market Drayton, Shropshire last night.

Around 500 are thought to have attended the blockade, which saw lorries turned away from the processor's main plant in the UK. The protest group praised the "Wonderful response" from farmers, who voted to return to a policy of direct action at meetings across the country ahead of the protest.

Farmers for Action said Monday night could mark the start of a series of blockades. The action follows similar demonstrations against falling prices in 2012 and 2013.

Last week, many major processors announced that further price cuts will be inflicted on their suppliers from November – in some cases the sixth such price cut in as many months. Those protesting in Shropshire last night claimed that processors and retailers have been taking advantage of the situation in the global dairy market to cut prices.  

FFA said Monday "Was a very long night for some who didn’t return home until well into the early hours of this morning to catch a few hours sleep before starting milking."  The group added in a statement on its website that "Twitter and Facebook was inundated with good will from consumers, who were all asking where can they buy their milk from that pays the producer a decent price...  [We] will be reintroducing a new consumer page shortly to help them through what is a minefield of milk pricing."

Muller was amongst the processors who slash prices last week, announcing cuts of 1.9 pence per litre for suppliers on top of 1.8ppl reductions which came into effect at the start of October, bringing prices down to 27.1ppl.

Muller's UK chief-executive Ronald Kers branded the protest group "militants" ahead of the blockade on Monday. Kers blamed an oversupply of milk and the current situation on the international market for the price drops. He said, "Unfortunately this extra milk coupled with weaker demand has affected farm-gate milk prices. This is a worldwide phenomenon repeated in all major milk producing countries, and the imbalance between supply and demand has resulted in the value of dairy commodities reducing by more than 50% in just 8 months."

He claimed, "Some of this decrease in commodity prices is being reflected in the farm gate milk price. Whilst disappointed, most farmers accept that this [is] the nature of the milk market."

However, farmers maintain that they need long-term security to reinvest in their businesses and those protesting in Shropshire last night warned that farmgate prices have been driven below the cost of production.