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Wales Producer Numbers
Published 5 January 12
Wales Dairy Producer Numbers
In January:
• Welsh dairy producer numbers continue to fall, declining by 42 (2.2%) over the past year.
• The number of dairy producers in Wales stood at 1,902 in January 2012, 12 less than the previous month.
The area which experiences the largest exit of producers in the last year was in Dyfed, where 25 dairy farmers have ceased production, although the largest decline in percentage terms occurred in West Glamorgan, where 12.5% of its dairy farmers left the industry. However, the number of dairy farmers in Glamorgan is small in comparison to other Welsh regions.
The rate of decline in Welsh producers was slightly lower than the 2.4% decrease in the number of English producers for the 12 months ending January 2012.
For more information on English producer numbers, please click here.
Farmer Numbers in Wales
|
Month Ending |
Wales |
| January 2011 | 1,944 |
| February 2011 |
1,937 |
| March 2011 |
1,931 |
| April 2011 |
1,924 |
|
May 2011 |
1,926 |
|
June 2011 |
1,923 |
|
July 2011 |
n/a |
|
August 2011 |
n/a |
|
September 2011 |
1,916 |
|
October 2011 |
1,916 |
|
November 2011 |
1,916 |
|
December 2011 |
1,914 |
|
January 2012 |
1,902 |
Note: Figures for July 2011 and August 2011 are unavailable
| Region | Jan-12 | Jan-11 | Year on year change | Year on year % change |
| Clwyd | 349 | 352 | -3 | -0.9% |
| Dyfed | 1,093 | 1,118 | -25 | -2.2% |
| Gwent | 104 | 108 | -4 | -3.7% |
| Gwynedd | 160 | 163 | -3 | -1.8% |
| Mid Glamorgan | 16 | 18 | -2 | -11.1% |
| Powys | 142 | 144 | -2 | -1.4% |
| South Glamorgan | 24 | 25 | -1 | -4.0% |
| West Glamorgan | 14 | 16 | -2 | -12.5% |
Source: Food standards Agency
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 Food Standards Agency 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 Food Standards Agency figures represent the number processed forms received each month. Due to time lags in processing the forms or time lags in farmers informing the Food Standards Agency 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.