This pulls the season-to-date (July-Dec) cumulative milk production back as well which is now 0.2% behind the same period a year earlier.
Monthly milk production started the season 5.5% ahead of a year earlier in July and has been on a downwards spiral since.
All States saw declines in December milk production except for Western Australia, which increased output by 5.3%, although it contributes less than 4% of the national total.
Victoria, which produces around 67% of total output saw the biggest monthly fall, down 5.9%.
Milk production in all parts of Victoria were well below year-ago levels but the Gippsland region (eastern Victoria) has been hit the hardest with output down 7.2% year-on-year in December.
AgriHQ Dairy Analyst Susan Kilsby commented “Australia’s main dairy exporting state, Victoria, has suffered in recent months from a lack of rain and hot temperatures which has tempered milk production.”
It now looks very unlikely that Australia’s milk production will grow by the 2% forecast by Dairy Australia in October 2016.
Australian farmgate milk prices are holding up well. The country’s largest dairy company, Murray Goulburn, has held its milk price forecast at its opening level of AU$6.05/kg milksolids.
“Farmer confidence remains high as farmgate milk prices are still performing well in Australia, so its really just the lack of pasture growth that is holding milk supply back” commented Kilsby.
For the season-to-date, Victoria and Queensland ended the first half of the 2015-16 season behind in milk production (1.2% and 1.4% respectively). New South Wales (+2.3%), South Australia (+1.7%), Western Australia (+5.6%) and Tasmania (+1.6%) are all ahead of cumulative volumes of the same period a year earlier.
The 0.2% seasonal decline in milk production for Australia is catching up to New Zealand. While Australia's decline in growth is getting bigger, New Zealand's is getting smaller and for the season-to-November was sitting at -2.9% after being at -3.6% in September.
US milk production for January-December was 1.2% ahead of the year earlier and the EU milk production between January-December was up 2.2% on a year earlier.
