A recent poll conducted by the National Farm Research Unit (NFRU) from April to October found that 43% of dairy farmers interviewed planned to sell their male dairy calves, whilst around one third planned to rear/keep them. A further 10% of farmers were exporting their male calves, with 15% of farmers planning to cull them.

In the West Midlands the pattern was similar with 42% of farms selling their male calves, 29% rearing them and 10% exporting them, but 20% of farms in the Region were choosing to cull these calves.

Majority of livestock farms see no major change

A two-year survey by the National Farm Research Unit (NFRU) reveals that overall 66% of livestock businesses said that the position of their farm was unlikely to change substantially over the next few years, compared with 73% in the previous year. However 9% of livestock farms were planning to expand, compared to just 3% in the previous year. A corresponding 5% thought that the farm would be reduced compared with just 3% last year.

Future of family ownership

Over three-quarters of livestock farmers (77%) expected the farm to stay in family ownership/management in the long-term, with 13% of farms expected to move away from the family. However 10% of livestock farmers expressed uncertainty as to the farm’s future ownership in 2008.

Findings from the West Midlands region reflect a similar picture to the national findings.

Livestock businesses are increasingly relying on full-time family to work on the farm. In 2008 96% of livestock farms relied on full-time family members compared with 90% three years before. Conversely just 4% of all livestock farms nationally and 3% in the West Midlands had no full-time family workers.

Overall 19% of livestock farms relied on just one full-time person working on the farm, with 43% of farms having two full-time workers, 23% having three full-time workers and 9% having four full-time people employed on the farm. In the West Midlands 20% of farms had one full-time worker, with 42% of farms in the region having two workers, 22% had three workers and 10% of farms had four people working on the farm.

Increased production

When asked about their production, 29% of livestock farmers said they were aiming to increase their production. In 2007 this figure was just 16% and in 2006 22%. The level of uncertainty has increased with 13% of farmers this year saying that they didn’t know if they would increase production or not, compared with just 5% in the previous year. This means that two-thirds of livestock farmers are currently not aiming to increase their production, compared to 79% of farmers last year and 68% the year before.

In the West Midlands 26% of livestock farmers were going to increase production, with just 2% being uncertain.

The most popular approach to increasing production was a dual approach of increasing yields as well as taking on more cows (46% of farmers). 30% of farmers were intending to increase their production by increasing their herd numbers, with 23% aiming to increase production through achieving higher yields.

In the West Midlands 29% of farmers were increasing their herd numbers, 27% were aiming for higher yields and 43% were aiming to do both.

Breed Society membership

Membership of a breed society has increased in the last three years with 23% of farmers being members of a breed society in 2008, compared with 17% in 2007 and 21% in 2006. This was the same % of farmers in the West Midlands region. The most popular breed society is Holstein UK.