Milk deliveries in the UK for the two weeks ending 2nd July 2016 were down 9.2% on last year's levels, according to most recent figures available from the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB).

Daily milk deliveries in the UK during this two-week period stood at 38.9m litres per day which is 3.9m litres per day less than year earlier levels and 1.8m litres per day or 4.4% lower than the three-year average for the period.

According to AHDB figures, over the month of June UK milk supply stood at 1.20bn litres, down by 7.9% from the June 2015 levels of 1.30bn litres.

Provisional figures from AHDB suggest that cumulative milk collections in the UK in 2016 up to the end of June totalled 7.40bn litres. This is down 1.8% compared to collections in the first six months of 2015, which totalled 7.53bn litres.

Slow feeding

Although reports suggest that grass growth was good during June on UK farms, the significant drop off in supply during the month has been put down to poor grass quality and a resistance from farmers to feed supplementary feed due to low milk prices.

AHDB state that a reduction in supplementary feeding could impact fertility in dairy herds, however it has also been said that lower production could help address the imbalance between milk supply and demand.

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