Falling milk prices have been blamed for the fall in farm numbers

The Scottish Agricultural College said new figures had shown there were 260 dairy farmers in Wigtownshire 18 years ago - compared to just 150 today.

A large number of farmers said they had been hit by continuing cuts in the price of milk to producers.

The SAC said many had been bought out by farmers from Northern Ireland.

Seamus Donnelly, senior consultant with the SAC's Farm Business Service in Stranraer, said that the Northern Irish farmers could outbid their local counterparts.

"They are able to come across and buy the land because they have been able to sell at a high price in Northern Ireland," he said.

"There has been a lot of development money coming into Northern Ireland for roads."

'Big challenge'

He said they had been receiving up to �10,000 an acre for land so they thought nothing of buying up land in south west Scotland.

"We have seen in the last three to four years land prices rising from what would normally have been �1,500 to �2,000 an acre up to current prices of �6,000 to �7,000.

"That in itself provides a big challenge for local farmers because they are not able to compete with those prices.

"In days gone by they would just have added extra land that would have helped to have spread their costs and they could have lifted production.

"If they can't do that I think we will see more and more farmers just saying - we are going to give it another year and see if the milk prices rises.