- Dairy farms in the UK
- Performance
- Scale
- Environmental impact
- TB incident
- Milk usage
- Dedicated supply chains

Dairy farms in the UK

Between 2000 and 2010 the number of dairy farms in the UK almost halved falling from 28,422 to 15,716.

Some 11,256 of these farms are in England and Wales. The latest estimate by DairyCo indicates that the number of dairy farms continues to fall and now stands at 10,851. The counties of Dyfed, Devon and Cumbria have the largest number of dairy farms.

Over this period the number of dairy cows has also fallen while average herd size and yield per cow has increased. The outcome is that production levels have fallen by about 5% and currently stand at 13,683 million litres*

The UK has about 1.85m dairy cows and the average herd size is 117 cows. Each cow produces on average about 7,315 litres of milk per annum.

After Germany and France the UK is the largest milk producer in the EU.
 

Performance

The average herd size of the most profitable farms is 168 cows (157 for upland dairy farms) compared with 105 (84) for the less profitable ones. Average milk yields in larger dairy farms are also higher.

Differences in performance can be driven by differences in costs or by differences in the value-added achieved from product quality (or from a combination of both). Scale is important as a driver of performance but other factors are equally important including external drivers concerning land quality or climate for example, as well as internal drivers relating to management, skills and business organisation.

DairyCo has created Milkbench+, an internet based benchmarking system that allows GB dairy farmers to compare their dairy enterprise with other farmers. It looks to examine the financial performance of the farm together with the management system used. From this information, benchmark reports can be produced which are tailored according to criteria such as farm system and herd size, for example.

Other dairy farm benchmarking services are provided by Promar (Milk Minder) and Kingshay (Dairy Manager). Milk Minder provides dairy farmers with the ability to monitor the performance of their dairy herd month by month. Dairy Manager also helps farmers track their dairy herd's performance on a monthly basis as well as providing benchmark reports against others on similar systems.
 

Scale

There is a trend towards fewer larger dairy farms across the EU.

According to DairyCo the number of large dairy farms – defined as those with more than 200 cows – has increased from 918 in 2005 to 1273 in 2009 in England (7.7% of all holdings). However, the number of large dairy farms fell slightly from 2008.

In Scotland some 13.5% of dairy farms have herds larger than 200 cows indicating that levels of concentration are greater.

The average herd size in the UK has increased from 72 cows 1996 to 117.
 

Environmental impact

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, the global dairy sector contributes 4% to the total global GHG emissions of which around 93% originates on farm. Methane contributes most to the global warming impact of milk. Methane is a by-product of the enteric fermentation of grass, forage and other feed in the cow’s rumen.

Opportunities exist for dairy farmers to reduce their GHG emissions through the use of on-farm anaerobic digestion, leading to increased energy and feed efficiency.

In 2008 the UK dairy industry published the ‘Milk Roadmap’ which sets out measures to further reduce the environmental impact of producing, processing and consuming liquid milk. Subsequently in 2010 the industry produced the ‘Dairy Roadmap’ which reported on progress made against the targets set in 2008.
 

TB incident

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is an infectious disease of cattle which has been increasing until 2008, then falling as shown in the chart below.

NB – Statistics are for all cattle slaughtered due to Bovine TB not just dairy cattle. It is estimated that for 2008-2010 approximately 54.5% of animals slaughtered are dairy cattle
 

The area of England affected by bovine TB has grown from isolated pockets in the late 1980s to cover large areas of the West and South West of England, and at the end of 2009, 6.4% of herds in England were under bovine TB restriction. The figure was 14.3% in the South West.

According to Defra, there is no single solution to tackling bovine TB. Cattle measures remain the foundation of bovine TB control programmes but it is not possible to eliminate the disease in cattle unless the disease in badgers is also tackled. Badgers are a reservoir of the disease and can transmit bovine TB to cattle. No other country in the world with a similar reservoir in wildlife has eradicated TB from cattle without stringent wildlife control measures.

Defra is consulting on a proposal to issue licences to farmers and landowners who wish to cull and/or vaccinate badgers at their own expense. These licences would be subject to strict licence criteria to ensure badger control is carried out effectively, humanely and with high regard for animal welfare.
 

Milk usage

The table from DairyCo below shows how milk is utilised. Approximately 51% of milk is used for liquid consumption, 26% for cheese and 10% goes for condensed milk and powders.

Exports for cheese, cream and milk powders increased between 2009 and 2010, while exports for raw milk and butter were the same as the previous year.

Over the same period, imports for all dairy products except raw milk and cream increased. Imports for raw milk fell by 10.7% and cream imports were at the same level as a year earlier.
 

Dedicated supply chains

The major supermarket retailers have developed ‘integrated supply arrangements’ under which a retailer obtains its supply of liquid milk exclusively from a specific group of farmers. The raw milk from these farms is processed under segregated arrangements and delivered as liquid drinking milk to the retailer.

The table below from Dairy UK sets out the details.

*DairyCo estimate for the milk year 2010/2011

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