West Coast dairy farmers who received the lowest milk payout last season say this year is going to be just as tough for them.
The 380 suppliers of Westland Milk products have had a final payout of $4.50 per kilo of milk solids for the 2008-09 season.
The figure is well below the payments from other dairy co-operatives Fonterra and Tatua, which paid $5.20 and $5.38 per kilo respectively.
Westland lowered its forecast twice during the season and for two months had to claw-back some of the advance payment made to farmers.
Federated Farmers' West Coast dairy chair Richard Reynolds says that was hard to cope with.
And though Westland has lifted its forecast payout for this season to a range of $4.70 to $5.10 a kilo, he says it is still going to be a financial struggle for most.
