Milk production in the US has moved up a gear in recent months and is now on track to hit an all-time record high. New figures published by the USDA show that October milk production in the US increased by 2.3% year-on-year to reach 8.1bn litres, which is an extra 190m litres.

The strong growth in October milk production follows an equally strong increase in September milk supplies in the US, which was up more than 2% year-on-year to 7.9bn litres. This brings US milk production for the first 10 months of the year to a cumulative 81.5bn litres, which is up 2%, or an extra 1.5bn litres, on the same period last year.

At this rate of growth, US milk production is on track to hit close to 98bn litres for the full year 2020, which would be the highest level of US milk supply in history.

Europe

Closer to home, milk production continues to grow in Poland and Ireland – the two countries that have shown the strongest production growth since the end of milk quotas in 2015.

In Eastern Europe, Polish milk production for the month of October stood at 965m litres, which is up 2% on the same month last year. This brings Polish milk production to a cumulative 10.1bn litres for the first 10 months of 2020, which is 2.5% ahead of the same period last year.

In Ireland, milk production is beginning to slow sharply as we enter the winter months. For October, Irish milk production stood at just over 650m litres, which is 8% up on the same month last year. This brings Irish milk production to a cumulative 7.6bn litres for the first 10 months of 2020, which is almost 4% ahead of the same period last year.