The long-awaited outcome of the Hamps Valley milk quota dispute is that milk quota sales are valid only when there is physical occupation of the land to which the quota is attached.
The judgment (shortly to be reported in full in EG) was made by High Court judge Mr Justice Popplewell, and settles months of speculation that the rules for the transfer of milk quota might be eased.
The case was settled on Mrs Margaret Cox, who bought 65,000 litres of milk quota from Hamps Valley Farms in Onecote, Leeds, Staffordshire, in 1986. She had taken a 10-month grazing licence but never occupied the land attached to the quota. The Ministry of Agriculture was seeking to return the quota.
While the judge decided in MAFF’s favour, he allowed Mrs Cox, of Yewtree Farm, Egerton Green, Malpas, to keep her quota because the ministry had twice since then decided against altering her registration.
In recent years, milk quota transfers have been effected from one end of the country to the other, with the sheer distance between buyers and sellers making it difficult for occupation to be completed.
It is thought to be unlikely that serious problems will arise from past failure to occupy land on the transfer of milk quota because thousands of registrations date back some years. However, new purchasers of milk quota are left in no doubt that they must occupy the land for a specified period.
