New Zealand dairy farmers are taking advantage of the good weather conditions in the spring months of the southern hemisphere. Calving is off to an early start this year, which is reflected in the strong milk production volumes coming out of New Zealand for the early months of the 2018/19 milking season.

The latest figures show September milk production in New Zealand stood at 2.6bn litres, which was up 6% on the same month last year. This brings New Zealand milk production for the first four months (June-September) of the 2018/19 milking season to just under 4.4bn litres, which is 5.8% ahead of the same period last year.

Europe

Meanwhile in Europe, new figures show that milk production in some big dairying regions has withstood the summer drought better than anticipated. The latest figures from Eurostat show that German milk production for August stood at just over 2.6bn litres, which was slightly ahead of the same month last year.

In the four months prior to August, German milk production had been growing at an average monthly rate of 3%, which is very strong for the largest milk producer in all of Europe. August milk production in France, which is the second largest producer in Europe, declined 1% year on year to 1.85bn litres.

Markets will be closely watching September milk supply figures in Europe which will start to be released over the coming fortnight.