With the Milk Race set to return after a 20-year absence, the team behind the Make Mine Milk campaign issued a fresh call to dairy farmers this week to put their hands in their pockets - as funds are running out.

The Milk Race, which was sponsored by the now disbanded Milk Marketing Board for 35 years and last held in 1993, will return, initially for two years, on 26 May.

But The Dairy Council and the Milk Marketing Forum (MMF), which have run the Make Mine Milk campaign since April 2010, hope to make the Milk Race a permanent fixture once again, to tap into public interest in cycling after Team GB’s success at London 2012.

They can’t do so, however, without more money. With a budget of £7.5m from the EU and UK dairy processors, EU funding ended in 2012, and the future of the campaign now hangs in the balance. MMF and Dairy Council chairman Sandy Wilkie said a cross-industry effort was needed to keep it alive.

“We need a joint effort with funding from all corners of the industry - including producers,” he said. “We’d welcome the opportunity to discuss with the relevant farming bodies how this model could become a reality.”

The campaign organisers will hope the positive publicity generated by the Milk Race will persuade farmers generic marketing is worth investing in - even in difficult times.

A spokesman also highlighted Make Mine Milk’s success in stimulating demand, particularly among younger consumers, citing an 18% increase in teenage girls’ milk consumption between spring 2011 and spring 2012 [Kantar Worldpanel]. Overall, per capita consumption of milk in 2012 was 1.6 litres higher than in 2009 [Kantar/Dairy UK, ONS].

The milk moustache campaign has previously been endorsed by Olympic cyclists Laura Trott and Ed Clancy.

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