England & Wales Dairy Farmer decline warning
Posted on: 15/02/19
AHDB dairy are suggesting the Food Standards Agency claim that 222 dairy farmers representing 2.4% have exited the industry in the past four mouths should be “treated with caution”.
Evidently the FSA often rely on Red Tractor data to identify farmers who have ceased production and that is not as timely as it perhaps should be and tends to be an accumulation over many months.
In addition Ian is aware that a number of farmers have either changed their business type from Dairy or ceased trading on Google Maps and with the FSA in order to avoid their details appearing on anti dairy interactive maps. These adjustments will certainly disrupt the figures and indicate a greater decline in dairy farmer numbers that the reality on the ground but at least it offers some protection from the activists.