Current pressures for change to the Milk Marketing Scheme arise from the difficulties of reconciling the activities of the Milk Marketing Boards and the private dairy companies in the United Kingdom with the common organisation of the European Community's milk market. Community legislation to achieve this in 1978 (Regulations (EEC) 1421/78 and 1422/78) has come under increasing attack. The paper discusses the challenges by producer‐retailers and contract processors, the returns from liquid and manufacturing milk, the problems of pricing in the EC framework and current proposals for changing both pricing arrangements and the form of the producers' organisation itsel