For the first time ever, Irish milk production has exceeded 1bn litres for the month of June. New data released this week by Eurostat shows milk production from Irish dairy farms totalled just over 1bn litres in June, which is 3%, or 30m litres, higher than the same month last year.

This is the second consecutive month that Irish milk production has exceeded the 1bn litre mark, following the 1.1bn litres produced in the country in May. This brings Irish milk production for the first half of 2020 (Jan-June) to a cumulative 4.3bn litres, which is 3.4%, or close to 145m litres, ahead of the same period last year.

Weakness

Meanwhile in the UK, milk production has stabilised after showing signs of weakness in the opening months of 2020. For June, UK milk production stood at just under 1.3bn litres, which was flat compared to the same month last year.

This follows months of falling milk production in the UK where milk supplies were back between 1% and 2% for each of the previous three months. The June production figures brings cumulative UK milk production for the first half of 2020 to just under 7.7bn litres, which is down 0.6% on the same period last year.