Milk output well under quota

Milk output in June was drastically under quota, with dairy farmers delivering just 1.1bn litres to processors.

Adjusted for butterfat at 3.89% this increases to 11.5bn litres, more than 100m litres short of the Charles Holt/Farmers Weekly quota profile.

This represents a shortfall of over 250m litres so far this quota year.

Charles Holt of the Farm Consultancy Group said the 100m litre shortfall for the month was “quite unprecedented”.

“It’s already possible to say that our chances of reaching quota this year are negligible.”

Purchase quota values have now fallen back to 1.6-1.8p/litre, but the fall has stabilised, with milk producers still interested in quota as a risk management tool.