As we take a closer look at the worrying increase in rural crime, here are some farm facts.

* There are 2,241 commercial farm holdings in Dorset, which is 8.8 per cent of those found in the South West. And some 61.4 per cent of Dorset’s farmed land is owned by the farmers managing it. Meanwhile, 197, 008.6 Ha of the county’s land area is farmed under a commercial farm holding, which is 74 per cent of Dorset’s land area.

* According to the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) 5, 974 people are directly employed in agriculture in Dorset. This figure equates to 9.8 per cent of all South West farm workers.

* Dorset's sheep number 176,238, which is just six per cent of the sheep in the South West. Cows in Dorset farms number 178,895, and there are 67,697 pigs and 1,829,027 poultry.

* NFU Mutual’s 2017 Rural Crime Report, which examined statistics from the previous year, concluded rural crime had cost Dorset more than £600,000 in 2016.

Take a read of our in-depth article into the worrying increase of rural crime here.