• Cow numbers continue to fall.
• The number of cows in the dairy herd has fallen 4.5% in the last 3 years.
• In the UK there are now just 1.9 million dairy cows in the dairy herd.

For more information on dairy cows per country click here.

Figures for June 2008 show that the number of cows in UK dairy herds has fallen by 2.3% (45,000 cows) between June 2007 when the number of cows in a dairy herd stood at 1.954 million and June 2008, to now stand at just 1.909 million. This is likely to be a significant factor in the large fall in milk production in the last year. The average yield per cow has also fallen by 52 litres a year between 2006/07 and 2007/08 resulting in total production for 2007/08 falling by over 250 million litres when compared to 2006/07. For more information on average milk yields click here.

Figures for June 2008 show that dairy cow numbers continue to fall across all subgroups, with the exception of a small increase of 2,000 female dairy cattle between 1 and 2 years of age. Despite this small increase, the age of the cattle means that it will be several years before these cows will impact on milk production volumes. This continuing fall in cow numbers may in part be due to the continuing decline in the number of producers. For more information on producer numbers click here.

Note: 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, 2007 and 2008.

Provisional