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Get the latest news and most up-to-date facts about dairy farming.
Large dairy farms
Cow health and welfare is of paramount importance to all British dairy farmers, regardless of the size of the farm. It is in their interest to have healthy animals and they have a legal and moral responsibility to maintain high welfare standards.
The quality of a farm's management and stockmanship has a greater impact on a cow's welfare than the size of the farm. In August 2010 the Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) concluded that: "There appear to be few disadvantages to the cow of being kept in a very large herd."
Amanda Ball from dairy farming organisation DairyCo says: "Dairy farming has a big part to play in supplying sustainable food to an ever growing world population. In order to achieve this we need new and innovative business approaches supported by investment - for example, the optimisation of land and nutrients (especially that recycled from waste) in milk production makes good sense for the planet.
"The size and type of dairy herd is not for us to decide but we do need to develop our production systems and business models to ensure a vibrant future for the British dairy industry."
Click here to watch videos about different dairy farming systems.
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In rotary milking parlours the cow is rotated during milking so that the milk is ready churned when it comes out
All about dairy farming
We drink around 5 billion litres of milk in Britain each year - the equivalent of 2,000 Olympic-size swimming pools or enough to drink a glass of milk every day for 54 million years.
Caring for the environment
Dairy farms have traditionally played an important role in rural
Britain, with farmers taking great care and pride in protecting the
environment.
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