CUMBRIAN members of the Dairy Farmers of Britain milk co-operative have stumped up an extra half penny per litre to fund the groups' expansion.

The county's 480 DFB members alongside its other UK members will pay 1p for every litre they supply to the co-op into a capital retention fund until March 2006. The finance is crucial to funding last week's £75 million acquisition of Associated Co-operative Creameries, the UK's fourth largest dairy business producing regional brands like Dairygate, Cadog, Alive, Dawn, Nurishment and Yorkshire Milk.

DFB spokesman Philip Gibson said the increased levy would cost a typical producer around £6,000 a year, but added that the short term pain of parting with that cash was outweighed by the benefits of gaining processing power.

"The way we are doing it is the most transparent. It's short term cash flow pain but that money is retained in their name in terms of capital and they will gain the benefits in the long term of having a shorter supply chain."

The acquisition has made DFB the biggest integrated milk co-operative, enabling it to process more of its own milk into everything from UHT milk to butter, cheese and desserts. It is also the third largest milk processor, handling 1.3 billion litres.

Lord Grantchester, DFB director and Cheshire chairman of the Country Land and Business Association, said the deal was a "a tremendous leap forward" for dairy producer members of DFB.

"From being a milk distribution business, processing five per cent of members' milk, we will now be processing 55 per cent of members' milk, guaranteeing market access and stability of returns to over 3,250 dairy farmers. Milk producers now have a major say in the future of their industry".

Douglas Chalmers, CLA Regional Director North said: "This deal gives back control of their own business to dairy farmers, which is a good thing for milk producers and therefore a good thing for farming as a whole."

DFB's expansion was also welcomed by Alistair Mackintosh, the Cumbria chairman of the National Farmers Union.

"Farmers have been crying out for this for some time. We are anxious dairy co-operatives get themselves into processing so further down the line we will see a better future for dairy farmers. Having said that it's going to be a struggle for a number of DFB members to come up with the goods, its going to be quite a significant cost. "Dairy farmers are always the ones that take the brunt of the costs. It is unfortunate they find themselves paying again but I appreciate hopefully there will be a long term gain."