„The fire has made it´s way over to the other countries“, says Thomas Schmidthaler, dairy farmer from Austria.    In Austria, the slogan is: „No milk today; yes we can.“ At the beginning dairy farmer´s insurgence was not so sure, but now photos, reports and films about the actions from the countries are clearly showing:  it will be difficult to stop the actions. Austria is currently lacking 10% of the national amount of milk. At the beginning of next week an action is planned, where further 10% of the quantity of Austrian milk will not be delivered to the dairies. Moreover: The dairy farmers will meet Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann and it really seems to be something going on  in the Austrian government. The pressure rises. Yesterday, many actions like road blockades and distributions of free milk to consumers have taken place, being observed with great interest by the media. These actions are continuing.

„Yesterday in Germany  a certain quantum leap has taken place“, says Ullrich Jasper from Germany. That is also due to the nationwide activities to deploy milk with barrels. „Farmers in Germany still have difficulties to start, to let their milk go. But if a farmer with a manure tanker comes to the farm, the farmers are willing to give their milk“, so Jasper. Yesterday 20% of the German milk amount was not delivered to the dairies. The media reports more and more.    
The farmer´s mood in Germany has been transformed by this. Assemblies, manifestations and demonstrations are increasingly visited by the farmers. As a consequence of the rising of  the dairy farmers in Europe  the Agriculture Ministers conference in Germany (and also in the EU) has put milk on top of its agenda.

   
Yesterday in the Netherlands a highway was successfully blocked. Dutch farmers have visited their German neighbour´s activities. After that a group of Dutch/German farmers has stopped only for a short time in front of a dairy. The media is reporting positivly and the consumer are behind the farmers.

In Belgium: The action with the liquid manure barrels went very well.    
3 million litres were collected and had been placed on the fields. The great resonance was not expected.Hennie de Zwaan from the Netherlands congratulates Belgium on „this successful action“, which was copied by many dairy farmers in the neighbour countries just a short time after the event in Belgium – and which was a huge success in the media.

In France: dairy farmers met in front of dairies to meet the milk tankers and to check the „papers“. These meetings are also used to gather farmers around in order to exchange  information. Farmers also started to yiel milk on fields with manure barrels. This action is extending to more and more countries. There are still more than 45 per cent of the French farmers on strike.

Marcus Hafner from Italy: „Today additionally 50% of the milk-volume of the italien APL members (Lombardy and Piedmont) will be thrown away. According to the information of the APL about 15% of the amount of milk was not delivered in Italy. A couple of big and important actions are planned. The Italian regional news are giving an excellent overview about the activities of the dairy farmers as well as about the dairy farmers in France.

In Switzerland yesterday morning there was a meeting of the representatives of the dairy industry together with Mrs. Leuthard, federal council of Switzerland. She agreed that there is a problem with the amount of milk and expects that the dairy industry will propose an acceptable solution. In this case she would realize these proposals. Martin Haab says, „I do not expect any suggested solution.“ On Friday some concepts will be presented by the dairy industry and on Friday night the dairy farmers of the German part of Switzerland are organizing a huge event.

In Ireland last week milk-demonstration took place. Take motivated the media to report frequently about the subject „milk“. Until now the producers are not very active, but are realizing the activities in the surrounding countries. And maybe „the motivation is spilling over to us, as in the other countries“, says John Enright.