Japan-Dairy farming in decline.

JAPAN-DROP IN NUMBER OF DAIRY FARMERS.

Kenichiro Takagi stared sadly at an empty cowshed.

"I have been around cows since I was old enough to understand things," the 63-year-old farmer from Nasukarasuyama told TheJapanTimes. "It’s lonely without them."

He is one of the many dairy farmers who have stopped raising milk cows in the face of surging feed prices, reports the news organisation.

The price of grain has been rising sharply around the world since fall 2006 amid a rise in demand for grains such as corn for biofuels and a flow of speculative funds into grain markets.