US milk production increased 1.06% in September 2017 to 16.2bn pounds compared with the same month last year, USDA figures show.

While production was up, it did not hit the expected forecast of 1.78%.

A regular 2% month-on-month growth in US milk production is being driven by a harvest, which has seen a large quantity of good-quality grain in the market.

As has been the case for months, the US dairy herd continues to grow and now stands at 9.4m head. This coupled with an increase in milk per cow were the main drivers in the increase in production.

To date this year, US milk is up 1.5% on the same period in 2016.

Forecast

The milk production forecast from the USDA for 2017 is now 216.2bn pounds, 0.2bn pounds higher than last month’s forecast.

For 2018, the milk production forecast stands at is 220.4bn pounds.

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