Britain’s (GB) milking herd has continued to shrink, according to the latest data from BCMS. As of 1 July it totalled 1.73m head, 2.7% (or 48,000 head) fewer animals than last year.

Felicity Rusk from AHDB said: “The largest drop was in cows aged two to four, which accounted for 90% of the decline in the overall milking herd. This is primarily due to historic calving and insemination decisions.

“Meanwhile, the number of animals under one declined by 2%, putting further downward pressure on herd sizes going forward.

By making assumptions on the proportion of cows that will be retained in the herd alongside the youngstock numbers, we can estimate the national herd size for the future.

“Our expectation is that the number of cows aged two or more by next July will be around 1.7m, a drop of 2% compared with the current level.”