Confidence in the Dairy Industry February 20, 2014 12:00 am The 2014 Dairy Farmer Intentions Survey has shown more confidence in the industry than for a number of years. The DairyCo survey, conducted inDecember each year, asked the opinions of 1,060 dairy farmers in Great Britain and 140 in Northern Ireland. The key findings of the survey were: Over the next two years the number of dairy farmers planning to leave the industry dropped to 4% (compared to 9% in Dec 2012) 31% of farmers planned to increased production within two years; of these81% planned to increase cow numbers whilst 32% would increase yields Planned investment remained relatively static on the previous year, Over the past 5 years 71% had invested in buildings, land, diversification, machinery or renewables. 63% were planning of investing more by 2018 24% of respondents were optimistic that the Dairy Code of Practice benefited their business, however 25% said they did not know and a further 22% were pessimistic. DairyCo estimated that the increased confidence and firm milk price could lead to a 5% increase in milk production by 2016, this equated to around 350m litres. The full report can be found at http://www.ahdb.org.uk/news/documents/JulieMacleod-AHDBMI.pdf
