Milk utilisation by dairies
Monthly statistics on milk used by dairies.
In the United Kingdom most of the milk produced is bought and processed by dairy companies. This series includes publications covering the volume of milk used by dairies in England and Wales and the UK in the production of drinking milk and milk products such as cheese, butter and milk powders. Other publications give UK production, overseas trade and supplies of drinking milk and milk products and the size distribution of dairy enterprises.
Following user consultation, new methodology was implemented in January 2018. The new methodology was first used to produce the November 2017 statistics published on 11 January 2018 when National Statistics accreditation status was reinstated.
Key methodology improvements and changes
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Direct sales, which accounted for less than 1% of available milk are no longer reported.
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England and Wales dataset is now a raised estimate of total utilisation.
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Updated factors used to convert milk into finished product
More details on the methodology and changes can be found in the November 2017 statistics notice,
The new methodology was applied to statistics from January 2015 to allow comparisons between the new and old datasets.
Related series:
User Engagement
Data from the milk utilisation by dairies statistics is an invaluable evidence base for policy makers, academics and researchers. The data is also heavily relied upon by the dairy industry, in particular the division of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) known as DairyCo (who represent milk producers) and Dairy UK (who represent milk processors). The milk utilisation by dairies data is used for providing insight into market characteristics and to monitor where milk is being used for domestic production. It provides insight to how production of products (such as butter, cheese etc.) changes in response to changes in global demand and market conditions.
As part of our ongoing commitment to compliance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics we wish to strengthen our engagement with users of milk utilisation by dairies data and better understand the use made of them and the types of decisions that they inform. Consequently, we invite users to register as a user of the milk utilisation by dairies data, so that we can retain your details and inform you of any new releases and provide you with the opportunity to take part in user engagement activities that we may run. If you would like to register as a user of the milk utilisation by dairies data, please provide your details in the attached form.
Documents
Updates to this page
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Added historical page for 2025 data.
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Add link to new historic page for 2024.
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Added the 2023 historical.
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Updated to add page for historical notices for 2022.
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Updated the details about improved methodology (introduced in 2018) on this web page.
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Edited to include new page Historical national statistics notices on milk utilisation by dairies, 2021.
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Updated to include a link to the historical national statistics notices on milk utilisation - 2020.
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Added link to historical statistical releases for 2019.
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Added link to historical statistical releases for 2018.
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The content on the page has been updated to explain an update to methodology and the return to National Statistics acceditation. Link added to Latest statistics on milk utilisation by dairies - national statistics page.
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Removed incorrect historical milk price statistics for 2017 link and added milk utilisation statistics for 2017 link.
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Updated to include links to official and historical official statistics notice pages.
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Added link to historical statistical releases for 2017.
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Added notice of review.
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Added 2016 historical notices.
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Added 2015 Historic notices.
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Updated to include historic notices for 2013 and 2014.
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First published.