The latest figures from Eurostat show a sharp decline in milk production in a number of large dairy producing region of Europe during the month of October. In the Netherlands, farmers continue to cull cows under the new phosphates quota regime and milk production is falling sharply as a result.

October milk production in the Netherlands stood at a little under 1.1bn litres, which is a decline of almost 6% on the same month last year. Dutch milk production for the month of November stood at 1bn litres, which is down 7% on last year. To illustrate the extent of the cull in the Dutch dairy herd in the second half of 2018, Dutch dairy farmers have produced a massive 220m litres less milk from August to November compared to the same period last year. Dutch milk production is on track to be down more than 3% for the entirety of 2018.

In Germany, the largest dairy producer in Europe, October milk production was back almost 1% to 2.5bn litres. However, in the 10 months from January to October, German milk production is still up more than 2% on the same period last year at a cumulative 26.4bn litres.

In neighbouring France, October milk production saw a big decline of more than 3% compared to last year to just under 1.9bn litres. For the 10 months to October, French milk production stood at just under 20bn litres, which is in line with the same period last year.

Offsetting these declines, there was milk production growth in the UK, Poland and Ireland. In the UK, dairy farmers pumped out 1.2bn litres of milk in October, which is up 0.5% on the same month last year. Polish milk production for October was up 3% at 935m litres, while in Ireland, October milk production was up a massive 20% on last year at 640m litres. Ireland was hit by Storm Ophelia in October 2017, which negatively impacted milk production that month and slightly skews these growth figures for milk production in October 2018.