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For the second month in a row, milk production in NI as recorded by DAERA is down on the same month in 2021.
The latest figures show that 225.5m litres of milk was produced in June 2022, down almost 6m litres on June 2021 figures. In May 2022, production totalled 246.9m litres, down over 2m litres on the May 2021 total.
Up to May 2022, NI had seen 21 months of continuous year-on-year growth in milk output.
Production during the first quarter of 2022 totalled 658m litres, up 13m litres or 3.8% on 2021. However, during the second quarter of 2022, the trend has reversed with 711m litres produced, down 6m litres or 0.8%.
Monthly production is expected to remain below 2021 levels through the second half of the year, potentially making 2022 the first time since 2016 that annual milk production has contracted. The driver back then was a sustained period of low prices. This time around, it is high costs that are putting the brakes on milk output.
Prices
The DAERA statistics also show that the average farmgate milk price for June stood at 44.41p/l, up from 42.5p/l in May.
During the first half of the year, farm gate milk price has averaged 40.06p/l, up from 30.29p/l in 2021.
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