News Milk
Strong decline in number of British dairy farmers
The number of British dairy farmers decreased by almost 6% last year. This is the strongest decline in six years. Especially in England, there was a significant decrease in the number of farms. The decline was smaller in Wales and Scotland. In Northern Ireland, the lowest number of dairy farms relatively gave up.
This is evident from recent figures from the British Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB). Compared to April 2023, there were a total of 440 fewer dairy farms in April 2024, bringing the total to 7,130. This excludes the number of dairy farmers in Northern Ireland, where there are still about 2,500 active.
The significant decrease in the number of farms was mainly caused by low milk prices in the winter period of 2023-2024. At that time, milk prices were the lowest in 7 years. Last spring, milk prices rose again, but only to a limited extent. Meanwhile, milk production per farm increased rapidly. In October of last year, production was still over 1.6 million liters annually, and by last spring, it had already risen to more than 1.7 million liters.
