The dairy industry in the United Kingdom is the industry of dairy farming that takes place in the UK.
In Europe, UK milk production is third after France & Germany and is around the tenth highest in the world. There are around 12,000 dairy farms in the UK.[2]
Around 14 billion litres of milk are commercially produced in the UK each year.
Britain eats around 2000 tonnes of cheese a day.
Only 3% of milk in the UK is delivered to the door. There was an 80% drop in deliveries when supermarkets began to sell their own milk en-masse. The largest commercial deliverer of milk in the UK has around 500,000 customers; there has been a recent upswing in demand for door deliveries.
Production was regulated by the Milk Marketing Board until 1994; its processing division is now Dairy Crest. AHDB Dairy is a central resource for the UK dairy industry.
The dairy industry is a large source of waterway pollution in the UK. It is linked to half of all farm pollution, largely from the waste produced by cows.[3] This pollution leads to fish kills and general harm to river ecosystems.[4]
