July milk production adds to national shortfall

DAIRY FARMERS turned in record low deliveries of milk in July, further stretching the UK’s shortfall compared to quota after months of poor weather.

Failure to recover from a slow start to the milk year, dairy farmers turned in 1170.3m butterfat adjusted litres, falling 50m litres below the Charles Holt/Farmers Weekly profile.

July production, the lowest since 1998, brings the deficit compared to quota in the year so far to nearly 210m litres.

“It’s now getting very difficult to achieve quota this year,” said Charles Holt of the Farm Consultancy Group.

“However, it is not impossible with people seeing the shortfall starting to push out milk as fast as they can in coming months.”

The news coincides with Dairy Hygiene Inspectorate figures showing dairy farmer numbers continued to decline, with 61 exiting the industry in July.