Milk production from a host of key producing regions of the world remains sluggish and is in decline in many areas. In the US, milk production growth has come to a shuddering halt over recent months.

For the month of June, US dairy farmers produced a combined 8bn litres, which was down 0.3% year on year. This brings US milk supplies for the first half of 2019 (Jan-June) to 48.3bn litres, which is slightly behind (-0.03%) the same period last year.

US cattle cull

US farmers have culled almost 100,000 head of cattle from the national herd over the last 12 months, yet average milk production per cow has risen close to 9,000 litres.

In Europe, milk production continues to decline in key regions. Dutch milk production for June was down 3% to 1.1bn litres.

For the first half of 2019, Dutch milk production is back 3% year on year to 6.7bn litres.

After bullish growth for the opening months of 2019, Polish milk production for June declined 0.5% to 990m litres.

Despite the decline in June production, Polish milk supplies for the first six months of the year are up 2% to 6bn litres.

Strong year in UK

In contrast, UK dairy farmers are enjoying a strong year with milk supplies for June up more than 1% to 1.3bn litres. This brings UK milk production for the first half of 2019 to 7.7bn litres, which is 3% ahead of last year. The UK is the third largest milk producer in Europe after Germany and France.