Stopping a trend lasting over a decade, a DairyCo analysis showed the nations herd growing to 1.443 million head in June 2014, up 2.6% from 1.113 head in June 2013.
DairyCo is Great Britain’s nonprofit dairy organization serving through information collection and analysis. DairyCo also released its 2014 Farmer Intentions Survey in cooperation with its parent organization, the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB).
The 2014 DairyCo/AHDB survey revealed a group of optimistic farmers in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Nearly 60 percent of farmers in the survey optimistic or extremely optimistic about the future of dairy farming in the United Kingdom, up from under 50 percent in those two categories one year ago. A similar percent were optimistic or extremely optimistic about their own dairy business.
While they may be confident, only 31 percent of those surveyed intend to increase milk production, while 54 percent want to maintain production and 4 percent intend to leave the industry. Extrapolated to all farms, this would represent about 3,500 farms growing, 6,000 maintaining, and 400 leaving the industry.
Of those expecting to expand, it may come as no surprise that farms that already have over 200 cows were most likely to want to expand (41% planning on expanding), while just 17% of those with 10 to 49 cows wanted to expand.
Sources: DairyCo, DairyCo/AHDB survey
