DairyCo

Quota

Published 1 October 10

Provisional figures have been provided by the RPA which give butterfat adjusted milk deliveries of 12,889 million litres for 2009/10. Taking into account permanent and predicted temporary conversions, this puts the UK at 1.55 billion litres under quota, 18.3% more than the previous year. This deficit is 241.1 million litres greater than 2008/09, however, start-of-year quota for 2009/10 did increase 1.0% - 150 million litres to 14,699.4 million litres from 2009/10.

The 2009/10 milk year saw a continuing fall in the number of dairy farmers by 3.9% while the number of dairy cows also fell 2.7% between June 2008 and June 2009. Production is often affected by weather and in 2009/10 UK grass growth has been hampered by excessive rainfalls in the North and droughts in the South. Click here for monthly production figures. 

Quota Position by Region

The table below shows each regions position relative to quota for 2009/10. All regions within the UK finished 2009/10 below quota, overall the UK is 10.8% (1.6 billion litres) under quota. In England the West was 269 million litres under quota, while on a percentage basis the East was 23% below quota. Overall England was 12% (1.1 billion litres below quota), Wales was 12% under quota and Northern Ireland 7% under quota. Scotland was the closest to quota, 6% - 81 million litres below quota.

For more information on quota by region click here.

Quota by holding size

The figures below show the number of wholesale quota holders and the amount of quota held by each category for the 2009/10 milk year. There are currently 15,954 wholesale quota holders in the UK and they hold 14.5 billion litres of quota. 69% (10,995) of wholesale quota holders hold between up to 1 million litres of quota, the majority of quota holders hold between 200,000 litres and 999,999 litres. Only 0.6% (101) hold over five million litres of quota, however, these 101 holders account for 5.2% of all wholesale quota.

Source: RPA