Dairy farmers handed out free pints of milk to shoppers yesterday in protest at the prices they receive for their produce from supermarkets.

Campaigners from Farmers for Action focused on Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons stores across the Midlands and said they would be rolling out their protests across the South-east and South-west next week.

Chairman David Handley, a dairy farmer in Monmouth-shire, said the group wanted retailers to cut their profit margins and pay farmers more for their produce.

He said two-and-a-half dairy producers left the industry every day and warned consumers that if the situation continued, it would mean that within five years there would be no fresh dairy stock produced in the UK to buy.

Mr Handley said: "We are protesting at the loss of income in farming and the devastating effect that major retailers are having on our industry.

"We are handing out a free pint of milk to customers as well as a leaflet and a questionnaire highlighting the crisis that the UK's dairy farming industry is in.

"We want to continue campaigning until the Government realises it has got to do something."

Andrew Hemming, a farmer from Hockley Heath, Solihull, who organised a protest outside the Asda store in Bromsgrove, said he had had a positive response from shoppers and would be presenting the results of a customer opinion survey to the supermarket later. ..SUPL: