Of note is the source of the UK cow numbers, all data is obtained from Defra and since June 2005 the method of collection uses the Cattle Tracing System (CTS) for England and Wales, the equivalent APHIS system in Northern Ireland and survey data from Scotland. This has meant that figures and categories vary significantly from those listed before.

At present the only figures available from the new system are for June 2005, 2006 and 2007. These figures show that the number of cows in dairy herds have fallen 1% each year, with June 2007 at 1.954 million, a fall of 25,000 cows from June 2006. This is likely to explain part of the continuing fall in milk production. The average yield per cow has also fallen by 29 litres a year between 2005/06 and 2006/07 resulting in total production for 2006/07 falling 140 million litres. For more information on average milk yields click here.

Figures show that dairy cow numbers continue to fall across all subgroups, with the exception of a small increase of 1,000 other female cattle in June 2006. This continuing fall in cow numbers may in part be due to the continuing decline in the number of producers, the number of producers in June 2006 stood at 13,778, this has fallen by 6.6% to 12,867 producers in June 2007. For more information on producer numbers click here.