August milk output under profile

7 September 2001



August milk output under profile

Dairy farmers delivered just over 1.141bn litres of milk to processors during August, according to Intervention Board provisional figures released on Friday (Sept 7)

Cumulatively, that takes output to a shade over 6bn litres for the first five months of the milk year.

No butterfat adjustment is needed, as butterfat % for both figures matches that in the Charles Holt Consultancy/Farmers Weekly quota profile. This is based on average monthly figures over the past five milk years and last year’s butterfat profile.

This means August output was 9m litres below quota, and the cumulative shortfall now stands at 115m litres.

That is almost 44m litres better than this time last year, though wholesale output ended up 273m litres below quota in 2000/01 after allowing for adjustments for direct and wholesale transfers.

"I think milk production is going to start to pick up," said Mr Holt. The gap between milk prices and quota has never been so great, and silage is of good quality, so producers will be pushing hard, he added.

"We will see the odd month above profile. But it will be a real struggle to make up the huge deficit in April and May. My guess is we still won’t make quota."

Quota to lease (4% butterfat) has eased to 0.75p/litre, and permanent transfer (also 4% butterfat) is worth about 15.5p, said Mr Holt.