Milk production in the US increased by 0.7% last month compared to June 2014, to reach 17.4 billion pounds (7.66m litres), according to figures released by US Department of Agriculture.

For the three months April-June, US milk output increased by 1.4% year-on-year.

Milk yield per cow was 1872 pounds (824 litres), up 0.2% on last year but down 0.05% on the previous month.

There are a total of 9.317 million dairy cows in the US, down 7,000 compared with last month, but up by 50,000 head from June 2014.

Meanwhile, Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) has accepted four requests for export assistance from Dairy Farmers of America and Northwest Dairy Association (Darigold) to sell 1.1 million pounds (2,420 tonnes) of cheddar cheese and 44,092 pounds (20.04 tonnes) of whole milk powder (WMP) to customers in Asia and South America. The product has been contracted for delivery through to December 2015.

Year to date, CWT has assisted member cooperatives to sell 41.9 million pounds (19,045.5 tonnes) of cheese, 30.4 million pounds (13,818 tonnes) of butter and 30.1 million pounds (13,681 tonnes) of WMP. These contracts which represents the equivalent of 1.3 billion pounds (572,183,098 litres) of milk.

CWT is funded by a 2c/100 pounds of milk (0.044 c/l) voluntary contribution from their producer members.