Munich  - German farming leaders on Monday called a milk protest strike, saying 88 per cent of dairy farmers would refuse from the next day to supply milk to dairy factories.

The farmers are angry at EU plans to increase output quotas and depress the market price of milk in the European Union. Brussels says it must respond to growing global demand for milk, especially from booming Asian nations.

Romuald Schaber, leader of the BDM German association of 30,000 dairy-cattle farmers, did not specify during a farmers' protest rally on the outskirts of Munich just how long the strike would last.

But Schaber advised hospitals and retirement homes to stockpile milk before shortages began.

"All we can do now is use our milk as a weapon," he said. "Milk is might, and we have the milk."

The BDM said a farm gate price of less than 40 euro cents per litre for milk was uneconomic.

The dairy factories of Germany are controlled by a few powerful companies which currently pay 27 cents a litre in north Germany and 35 cents a litre in south Germany for milk, according to BDM data. (dpa)