The prolonged winter weather that hit Europe this year right up to the end of April has pushed the usual timeline for crop plantings and milk production back by almost a month.

The full extent of the impact from this cold snap on European milk production was made clear this week, as Germany and France, Europe’s two largest producers, released milk collection figures for April.

In Germany, milk production held up quite well during April, with milk collections from dairy farmers increasing 3.5% year on year to just under 2.7bn litres.

However, it is important to note that German milk production in the first half of last year was exceptionally weak. Compared with 2016 levels, German milk production for April was flat.

In neighbouring France, the second-largest producer in Europe, milk collections for April fell 1% year on year to 2.1bn litres.

Compared with 2016 levels, French milk production is down 2% this year. Milk production for April was also down in the UK (-1%), Ireland (-6%) and the Netherlands (-2%).

The Dutch government also released figures this week for May milk production. Despite the improved weather in May, Dutch milk production was down 1.5%, below 1.2bn litres. For the first five months of 2018, Dutch milk production stands at 5.8bn litres, which is 1.5% behind last year.

The drop in milk prices across Europe in April, combined with strong buyer demand ahead of the World Cup in Russia, has underpinned rising dairy markets over the last six weeks.

Dairygold, LacPatrick, Carbery and Arrabawn set milk price

Dairy markets: impact of difficult spring weather becomes clear

Milk production in some of Europe’s largest producing countries was hit hard by the difficult spring weather this year.