According to the latest figures from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), August milk supply was just under 8bn litres (18.1bn pounds), a 2% increase on the same month last year.

The 23 major producing states alone delivered 7.5bn litres last month (17bn pounds), up 2.1% year on year. The USDA also revised its figures for those states for July, bringing up the growth rate for that month to 2.1% as well.

For the first time in the past year, there was no increase in the number of dairy cows in the US. However, yields continued to improve year on year. There were 9.4m cows in the US milking an average 844l (1,919lb) last month.

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