The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) predicts that 92.5bn litres of milk will be produced in 2015, down 0.5% from last month’s forecast.

As a result, expected year-on-year growth has fallen to 1.9% from 2.5% with dry weather blamed for the forecasted drop. California has been seriously affected by drought and milk production is down by 3.8% in the state.

Though the dairy herd continues to increase, the rate of growth is slowing. The herd stood at 9.31m in February, expanding by about 3,000 over the previous month. There were additions of 15,000 and 10,000 in December and January, respectively.