Never underestimate the innovation of the Dutch farmer. After the Dutch government was forced to introduce new regulations in early 2017 in a bid to try and curb phosphate production, many market observers had predicted Dutch milk production to fall last year.

While this proved to be true in the early months of 2017, milk supplies rallied strongly in the second half of last year seeing Dutch milk production remain on a par with 2016. Milk production figures from Eurostat show that 2017 Dutch milk production for the full year stood at 13.8bn litres, which is just 0.3% behind the previous year’s milk supply.

The high milk price in the second half of 2017 due to the record price of butter in Europe incentivised Dutch farmers to turn on the milk tap, with strong growth in milk production recorded in October and November.

To meet the phosphate regulations many Dutch farmers have culled poor performing cows and moved follower heifers out of the country to Germany.