The majority of dairy farmers surveyed at Dairy Day are confident about their future post-Brexit, despite questions over future trade deals and farm payments.

Herdwatch attracted farmers milking more than 16,000 cows between them to complete the survey.

James Greevy, head of business and product development for Herdwatch, said: “The level of confidence – with 88% saying they are confident - is a little surprising, especially considering the amount of uncertainty that there is concerning Brexit but it’s great to see how many farmers (52%) are looking at boosting cow numbers moving forward.”

The two biggest concerns for the future were cited as milk price, which has been extremely volatile over the past two years, and labour shortages, with immigration a key government discussion point.

Farmers said they were also worried about growing consumer perceptions, with milk being seen as an unhealthy drink, and the increasing sales of non-dairy ‘milks’, along with parallel growth in the vegan food market and aggressive advertising campaigns.

The most popular social media platform was given as Facebook, with farmers also quoting Twitter and Instagram.

Supporting the fact that some farmers are reluctant to take on new technology, more than half those quizzed said they were not currently using their smart phones to record farm information.