The milk intake of dairy processors came in at just over 1,020m litres in July, a marginal fall of 0.2% on July 2022’s intake.

Overall, milk throughput is back 0.85% in the seven months to the end of July when compared with the same period in 2022.

February has been the only month this year where the milk intake was higher than in 2022.

The fat content of milk deliveries rose to 4.13% in July 2023 from 4.03% in the previous July, while protein content remained unchanged at 3.47%.

Butter output

Butter output increased by 8.5% to 31,700 tonnes in July 2023, with a fall of around 10% in skimmed milk powder over the same month on July 2022.

France and Ireland were the two of the EU’s top five milk producers to see milk intakes fall in the first half of 2023 when compared with the year previous.

Deliveries there came back 2.2%, while Germany was up 2.6%, Poland up 2.1% and the Netherlands up 3.1%.