Looking at the figures on a regional basis, the largest numerical year on year decrease was seen in the North West with producer numbers falling by 60 (2.5 per cent) between December 2010 and December of this year.

The next largest annual fall occurred in the North, where 51 producers left the industry, a decrease of 2.9 per cent.

The region with the largest percentage decrease between December 2010 and December 2011 was the East, where producer numbers fell by 18 (10.9 per cent) to 147.

The EU 27 has also seen the number of dairy producers fall by 10 per cent between 2008/09 and 2009/10, to 1,205,133.