Dramatic decline in milk output

Tuesday, 10 February, 1998

By FWi staff

MILK production decreased dramatically during last month, according to the latest output figures.

Preliminary estimates from the Intervention Board suggest butterfat-adjusted deliveries in January totalled 1,184 million litres – less than 1% over quota.

Intervention Board officials have also released re-assessed output figures for December following an over-estimate of milk deliveries early last month.

Confirmed output butterfat-adjusted figures for December now stand at 1,175 million litres.

Those figures and the dramatic slow-down in production mean the cumulative overshoot in milk output has fallen from 124.3 million litres to 110.7m litres.

Output is now only three days ahead of target and production is slowing by about 1.5 million litres per week.

Analysts now expect a surplus in the region of 70-80 million litres when the milk year ends in April.