UK milk production hits a 20-year high as quotas end

UK dairy farmers produced 14.394bn litres in the final year of milk quota – the highest annual production since at least 1994-95.

According to provisional data from the RPA, milk production totalled 1.262bn litres in March – 5m litres above last year and also the highest since for the month in 20 years.

Butterfat increased slightly to 4.10% for the month and 4.00% for the year.

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However, with 15.293bn litres of quota available at the start of the year, the UK should end the final season comfortably under quota.

Daily deliveries in the fortnight to 4 April showed that production continued to run ahead, at 41.4m litres a day.

That was 0.1% above last year and 6.6% higher than the three-year average.

Meanwhile, DairyCo’s February league table showed little change in the overall rankings, despite 26 of the 45 contracts recording a price change.

With the exception of Dale Farm NI – which showed an increase of 0.50p/litre – all were price cuts, ranging from 0.5p to 1.5p/litre down. March showed a further nine price cuts and four increases, with seven price cuts due in April.