English Livestock Numbers

The June Survey of Agriculture shows that dairy, beef and pig herds in England declined between 2012 and 2013.  However, the ewe flock increased slightly.  The dairy breeding herd fell by 0.6% to 1.11 million cows.  The beef herd declined by 3.0% to 720,000.  the female pig breeding herd reduced 1.4% to 346,000 sows.  The only major sector to show a rise was sheep, with ewe numbers climbing 3.8% to 7.09 million.  (Poultry figures are still to be published).  The full results can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/243835/structure-jun2013finalcropslivestock-eng-19sep13.pdf.  The provisional results for the whole UK are expected out on the 17^th October, with the full results published in December.