Landlords of tenant dairy farmers are being urged to review how much they charge in rents, the NFU Tenants Forum said today.

The call comes following the recent round of farmgate milk price cuts and First Milk’s announcement last week to delay its next milk payment by two weeks.

NFU Tenants Forum national spokesperson Chris Cardell said, "I want to see all landlords be understanding towards tenant dairy farmers in regard to rent, particularly those hard pressed First Milk suppliers who are under extreme financial pressure at this time.

"Obviously some of these will be on very high rents and may need some consideration from landlords in these times of trouble. Indeed some may be in a very good position to issue a rent review notice to the landlord this spring triggering a rent reduction negotiation."

Mr Cardell said any rent reviews to increase dairy farm rents ought to be postponed during this "difficult time" for dairy farmers. He asked that landlords provide any other assistance they can to tenant dairy farmers, after figures on the large number of farmers leaving the dairy sector were published earlier this month.

Figures from the union showed that the number of dairy farmers in England and Wales has halved in less than ten years.