Milk collections from Dutch farms for September fell by almost 5% year on year to just over 1bn litres. This brings Dutch milk production for the first nine months of 2018 to 10.2bn litres, which is 2% down on the same period last year.

US beef production is forecast to rise 4% in 2019 to hit a record 12.7m tonnes – up from the 12.3m tonnes the farmers are set to produce this year and significantly ahead of the 11.5m tonnes produced in 2015, which was a decade low.

September cattle slaughterings in Argentina plunged almost 20% compared with August to fall below 945,000 head. Just under 9.89m head of cattle have been slaughtered in Argentina in the first nine months of 2018, which is up 7% on the previous year.

Chinese soya bean imports in 2019 are forecast at 94m tonnes, according to the USDA. This is in line with Chinese soya bean imports for 2018. Global stocks of soya beans at the end of this year are pegged at 110mm tonnes.