1 October 2009

1 minute read

Europe

Analysis of Rural Payments Agency (RPA) milk production data for 2008/09, identified 3484 dairy farms (28 per cent of the industry) producing more than one million litres of milk a year in 2008/09. This accounts for 59 per cent of the British milk supply. Compared to 2007/08, the number of farms of that size having fallen by 384 (10 per cent). 

In 2008/09, the 5008 farms (40 per cent of the industry) producing less than 500,000 litres of milk per year contributed just 13 per cent of total British milk supply. That was down from 18 per cent five years ago, when there were 3433 more farms of that size. DairyCo also found that, since 2004/05, the proportion of national milk supply from farms producing over two million litres a year increased from 14 per cent to 23 per cent.

Regional differences showed that the number of Scottish farms producing over two million litres per year has more than doubled since 2004/05 and their share of the country's total milk supply has increased from 12 per cent to 26 per cent. Nine per cent of Scottish farms producing over two million litres a year, supplied over one quarter of the counrty's yearly total.

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