Milk money

The Federation of German Dairy Farmers, or BDM, has raised the alarm, saying a third of the country's milk farmers could go under if prices continue to fall.

"We estimate that by the end of the year, 25 to 30 percent of the German milk farmers could disappear from the market," BDM president Romuald Schaber told Germany's Die Welt newspaper.

"We will fight. Stopping [milk] deliveries is an option for us," said Schaber, who is also president of the European Milk Board.

Last year, some of Germany's 100,000 farmers staged strikes to protest milk prices they said were too low to support a living.

In the north and east of the country, several large concerns, with up to 1,000 cows, are on the verge of bankruptcy.

Bavarian Premier Horst Seehofer has called for German Chancellor Angela Merkel to take measures.

"Now Angela Merkel has to join the fight," he told the Passauer Neuen Presse newspaper on Saturday.