DairyCo

UK Producer Numbers

Published 15 July 10

Dairy Producer Numbers

• In June, there were 11,256 dairy producers in England and Wales, 487 fewer when compared with June 09.
• The number of producers in England stood at 9,271 in June, which was 28 fewer than in May.

According to the latest statistics, producer numbers for England and Wales in May stood at 11,256, which was 487 fewer when compared to the level in June 09, equivalent to a fall of 4.1%.  When breaking the figures into regional segments, Wales has seen the biggest annual decline of 5.7%, to 1,985, a decline of 119 producers.  Within England, the South region has seen the largest decline in producer numbers, falling 5.2% (14 producers) when compared to numbers in June last year.  For more information on producer numbers in individual counties, please click here.

The EU 25 has also seen the number of dairy producers fall by 7.6% between 2007/08 and 2008/09, to 728,760. For more information on EU dairy producer numbers click here. 

Please note: figures include buffalo, goat and sheeps' milk producers as well as cows milk producers. Any producer selling milk for human consumption needs to be registered with the DHI and this covers a range of possibilities from someone with 1 goat to 1000 plus dairy cows. Therefore any increase seen in the numbers should not necessarily be interpreted as an increase in the number of commercial dairy farmers.

It must be taken into account that DHI figures represent the number processed forms received each month. Due to time lags in processing the forms or time lags in farmers informing the DHI that they have stopped producing, these figures may not provide an exact representation of the number of farmers that have ceased producing milk in a particular month.

Producer Numbers England & Wales

Source: DHI

Producer Numbers by Region

Source: DHI