Irish milk production has posted some strong increases this spring, with milk volumes from farmers in March and April increasing 4% and 12% respectively.

However, in terms of scale, Irish milk production is tiny compared with the US, where April milk deliveries were over 8bn litres, which is almost 10 times higher than Irish milk output (see graph).

European milk production has increased slightly in March and April by 0.1% and 0.4% respectively, despite a drop of 2.1% and 4.5% in January and February.

Overall, the European Commission expects an increase in milk production of 0.6% this year compared with last year.