Even though it was a hard year with high input costs, there are slightly less dairy farmers in Great Britain.
A survey by the AHDB shows that even though input costs have gone up, fewer dairy farmers have left the business than in previous years.
Based on the most recent survey of major milk buyers done by the levy organisation, there will be 7,850 dairy producers in Great Britain in October 2022.
This is a drop of 150 producers, or 1.9%, compared to October 2021, but only a drop of 30 producers, or 0.4%, compared to April of this year.
Even though input costs have kept going up over the past year, the AHDB said that higher milk prices had helped to make up for that.
Charlotte Forkes-Rees, an AHDB analyst, said that this could be why fewer farmers have left the business than in past years.
“However, differences in contract prices may have led some producers to switch contracts in the past six months.”
The most recent numbers show that the average volume per farm in the UK is 1.57 million litres per day, which is the same as what was seen in October 2021 and April 2022.
Different ways of reporting make it hard to get a clear picture of how many dairy producers there are in the country.
Based on how many farmers have signed up to make milk, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) can keep track of the number of producers in England and Wales.
But farmers don’t have to unregister, so it’s not likely to be at the top of their list of things to do when they leave the business.
The AHDB’s estimate is the number of milk producers who are actively making milk in Britain.
It is based on the number of milk buyers who take part in the Daily Milk Deliveries survey and report on the number of active and temporarily inactive milk producers.
This is about 82% of all GB volumes, so the estimate has been changed to reflect that.
