Almost 200 UK dairy farmers leave sector in past year
© Tim Scrivener The concerning exodus of dairy farmers from the industry has continued, with the total number of GB dairy producers falling to just 7,040 in April 2025, according to the AHDB’s latest survey of milk buyers.
This represents a 2.6% fall on the previous year and indicates that a further 190 producers left the sector in the past 12 months.
Much of this decline took place during the winter months, with 160 fewer farms in production now compared with last October.
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This is despite farmgate milk prices holding relatively strong throughout the past year.
Annabel Twinberrow, a livestock analyst at the AHDB, said: “This has been an ongoing trend, with industry exits typically occurring before winter housing and additional input requirements, such as feed, become seasonally higher.
“The 2024 winter period also saw changes to government support and additional supply chain requirements introduced for some producers.”
Worryingly, roughly 1,000 producers have left the sector in the past four years alone.
Consolidation within the dairy sector is also evident, with the average milk volume per farm continuing to increase year-on-year, with current estimates putting it at 1.77m litres a year.
Milk supplies tell a different story, with production hitting a record last month, up by more than 5% compared with May last year.
Ms Twinberrow added: “Our latest forecast for the 2025-26 milk year is set to record a new high at 12.83bn litres, 3.1% more than the previous milk year.”
Milk production in the UK and Ireland has been higher during 2025, while there have been declines across Europe, particularly in Germany, France, the Netherlands and Belgium, according to the Dairy Group.
Nick Holt-Martyn, principal consultant at the Dairy Group, said: “UK milk production peaked eight days earlier in 2025 than 2024 on 4 May, and was 4.9% higher. Despite fears of widespread drought limiting grazing, milk production has remained high, with the rolling seven-day average up 5.7% in late May.”