Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many dairy farms in (a) Ribble Valley constituency, (b) Lancashire and (c) the UK have ceased to operate in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.
Answer
DEFRA does not collect figures on the number of farm businesses leaving the dairy sector each year. Figures from the June Survey of Agriculture only indicate activity on registered holdings in England at June each year and therefore show net change only.
The number of commercial holdings1 where dairy is the predominant activity are shown in the following table for 2009-12 in the Ribble Valley, Lancashire and
England. We are unable to provide comparable figures for 2008 due to a database maintenance and updating exercise.1 Commercial holdings are those with significant levels of farming activity. These significant levels are classified as any holding with more than five hectares of agricultural land, one hectare of orchards, 0.5 hectares of vegetables or 0.1 hectares of protected crops, or more than 10 cows, 50 pigs, 20 sheep, 20 goats or 1,000 poultry.
| 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | |
| Ribble
Valley | 108 | 100 | 97 | 91 |
| Lancashire | 513 | 487 | 468 | 449 |
| England | 8,190 | 7,882 | 7,609 | 7,276 |
| Source: June Survey of Agriculture |
Data for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is the responsibility of the devolved Administrations.