Can life get any more difficult for our dairy farmers?

Earlier this week First Milk announced that it is again cutting the price of milk supplied by its producers by a further 1p a litre. This means Scottish farmers supplying the co-operative will be receiving between 14p and 16.5p per litre for their milk - half what it costs (about 30p a litre) to produce.

We're used to hearing this sort of bad news and no doubt this latest blow will dominate news headlines over the weekend. The result of such repetitive cuts is down to supermarkets still determined to sell this dietary staple as cheaply as possible, and it's seriously undermining our dairy industry. More farmers will decide to throw in the towel and sell up, thereby losing generations of expertise and raising the prospect yet again of our having to live on frozen milk imported from other EU countries.

But there's a glimmer of hope which hasn't yet quite managed to hit the headlines: the launch of the Scottish Dairy Brand logo which took place at the recent Royal Highland Show. The circular logo, set in a subtle tartan background with the words "made with 100% Scottish milk", will be added to Scottish cheese and butter in bid to signpost its presence in shops and to help retailers and overseas buyers boost the profile Scottish dairy produce, in the same way that the Scotch beef, salmon and shellfish brands are already recognised.

The move is a five-year plan developed by the Scottish Dairy Growth Board under Paul Grant, chair of the successful Mackays jam company whose brand is internationally renowned. It's designed to give a helping hand to our beleaguered dairy farmers, who if they haven't already done so might think about diversifying into other products than liquid milk.

Since the scheme is initially government-funded, producers don't pay to be part of it; they're chosen according to the criteria set by the SDGB - namely, that their butter or cheese contains 100% Scottish milk, that it's made in Scotland, and that they have Salsa (food safety) accreditation. The idea is that, eventually, funding will transfer back to the industry via some sort of levy, which is still to be established.

Scotland already has a thriving cheese industry. Those on the initial Scottish Dairy Brand list can be divided into main brands such as Mull of Kintyre mature cheddar and Galloway cheddar, artisan labels such as Arran waxed truckles, Errington's Dunsyre and Lanark Blue, Highland Brie, Cambus O'May, Barwheys hard cheese and St Andrews Farmhouse cheddar, and the organic ranges from Connage. In total, 150 farmers have signed up, with 11 suppliers selling 39 cheeses in 18 different brands across heritage, artisan and organic. As far as I can tell, they are pretty representative of the whole industry, from big boys Lactalis, First Milk and Graham's right down to the smallest farms.

This number is impressive, but taking into account Scotland's dairy-rich farming heritage it's actually not that many. I could name some that aren't there (Ann Dorward's Dunlop range including Paddy's Milestone for example), as I'm sure you can if you are a customer of Iain Mellis or George Mewes or any other independent cheesemonger. I understand the cheeses listed for the logo are predominantly hard cheeses and butter, whose longer shelf-life make them suitable for transportation abroad.

Surely the potential is there for more as the diary sector produces 15% of Scotland's total farming productivity. England, Ireland and France have all put much more emphasis on their regional cheeses than Scotland has done, or has been able to do, in the past. In another move to help the industry, the Government has announced funding of £400,000 to the Campbeltown Creamery and new support to dairy farmers on Bute.

General consumer ignorance about the range of Scotland's regional cheeses is no doubt down to poor or patchy presence in your local supermarket, combined with its virtual absence in any food shop you might visit on holiday abroad. The same goes for butter; despite the range of spreadable butters on offer from Graham's dairies, it's more likely to be Lurpak that is visible in stores, even though they come in similar sized and shaped tubs. I reckon that if the Scottish Dairy Brand takes off, this might change and more producers might be encouraged to make butter.

In the UK, the availability of Scottish cheese in shops is sometimes inconsistent and uncoordinated, a result of individual makers taking their own products to market. A more coordinated approach could be the end result of the SDB.

The initial focus is on developing international markets. The SDB will be launched globally at the Anuga food trade fair in Cologne in October, where participating Scottish cheeses and butters will be introduced to world markets, following the Showcasing Scotland event at Gleneagles. Two leading UK cheese exporters have been secured to take the products to market.

Given the evidence that Scottish brands have powerful pulling power - the Scotch Beef brand adds around £20m at the farmgate and almost £40m in retail, and exports of Scottish food were a record £1.1bn last year - let's hope is that our beleaguered dairy farmers will finally have something to smile and say cheese about.