Milk production in the Netherlands continues its monthly decline.

New figures from Eurostat show Dutch milk production for April stood at 1.1bn litres, which is down almost 2%, or 20m litres, on the same month last year.

This decline in production comes despite April 2018 being a very difficult month for European farmers due to the extreme weather conditions last spring, when heavy snows hit most of the continent.

Lower than last year

The Eurostat figures show that Dutch milk production for the first four months of 2019 (Jan-April) stands at a cumulative 4.45bn litres, which is almost 3%, or 130m litres, lower than the same period last year.

The phosphates quota system imposed last year in the Netherlands has forced Dutch dairy farmers to cull tens of thousands of cows over the last year to lower their phosphate emissions. Dutch milk production has now weakened for 15 consecutive months and shows no signs of stabilising.