UK milk production for the month of July is down 1.1% on the same month in 2014, according to provisional figures released by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural affairs (DEFRA).
The UK produced 1.2m litres of milk in July 2015, which AHDB Dairy (formerly Dairyco) said has come as a bit of a surprise to the industry as there have been few reports of a drop-off in production.
It said that June 2015 production was 3.9% up on June 2014.
According to AHDB Dairy figures, collected from processors accounting for approximately for 65-70% of UK production, UK milk deliveries in July averaged 3% more than the same period in the previous year.
It pointed out that DEFRA’s July figure is provisional and subject to revision and that in the past these revisions have been equivalent to as much as nearly 1m litres/day.
UK milk prices
The July EU weighted average milk price stood at €29.70/100kg (21.64p/L), down €0.26/100kg (0.9%) on the previous month, according to AHDB Dairy.
Compared with the previous year, it said that the weighted average EU price for July was down €7.27/100kg (19.7%), this was a decrease on the year of 8.55p/L, it said.
The average UK farmgate price in July stood at €32.04/100kg (23.34p/L or in euro terms 32.06c/L ), which AHDB Dairy said was the fourth highest price of any nation in the EU15 after Greece, Finland and Italy.
It said that the EU15 weighted average price stood at €30.28/100kg (22.06p/L) in July, €0.27/100kg (0.9%) down on June, and was €7.48/100kg (19.8%) lower than the July 2014 average.
Looking at the top-five milk producing countries for this month (Germany, France, UK, Netherlands and Poland), the average July price was €29.58/100kg which was a €0.08/100kg (0.3%) decrease compared with the previous month, AHDB Dairy said.
