DAIRY farmer Josette Feddes is desperate to a find a way of stopping most of her dairy herd’s daily milk yield going down the drain because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Producers like her have seen orders dry up, despite milk processors who supply supermarkets saying they are working flat out to keep shelves stocked. The drop in sales to the café, restaurant and other food service sectors is hitting Wanborough-based JoJo Dairies hard.

The 250-strong herd produces 6,000 litres a of milk a day but most of it is literally going down the drain as there is nowhere for it to go as their processing company loses orders.

Josette Feddes has been farming at JoJo’s for 12 years and is now offering cut price milk to the public. “We sell our milk to a processor who in turn sells to the likes of Costa Coffee, Starbucks, airlines and so on. But that market has dried up because of coronavirus,” she explained.

The dairy, which is based at Lotmead, sends the bulk of the daily yield to Freshways, a processing plant in London. About 100 litres are saved each week, bottled and loaded into a vending machine to be sold directly to the public. It stocks bottles of 500ml, 1L and 2L.

Josette is hunting for a solution which can get the bulk of her wasted milk from her farm to market and is pleading with local bottling and distribution companies to come to her aid.

“It is utterly desperate,” she said. “There are starving people in the world and this is just so frustrating. Cows will keep producing milk, so we can’t just not milk them.”

She has even started to post on Facebook to encourage local people to come to the farm to buy milk directly from her.

“I need to look after the farm and the animals, and just do not have the time to bottle up and deliver to local businesses. We are desperate for local help to solve this supply chain issue,” she said. “There needs to be a link to get our product to the people.”

Her call is echoed by the milk industry trade body, Dairy UK, which has backed calls for the milk supply chain to improve. A spokesman said: “Dairy processors are fully supportive of any moves to improve collaboration through the supply chain and are working closely with producers.”