Fonterra milk intakes for September are 9% lower than the same time last season. Its milk intakes for the season to date (June-September) are 5.65% down.
Milk collected in the Waikato by Fonterra in September was nearly 10% less than the same time last year and collections are also well below 2013 levels. The lower North Island has fared even worse with milk intakes down a whopping 13% for September and 10.5% for the season to date.
In the central South Island region, milk intakes were down 4.7% on last season but intakes were similar to two seasons ago.
The lower South Island also had a poor September. Fonterra's milk intakes for this region were 12.7% down on last season bringing the season to date total to -10.8%.
Poor weather has been the main driver of the drop in milk output this season. Western parts of the North Island and Southland experienced a very cold wet early spring which slowed pasture production. Farmers have been reluctant to plug the feed shortage with supplementary feed due to the milk price forecasts being so low early in the season. Instead they have opted to reduce cow numbers to match feed demand with supply.
Climatic conditions have improved and October milk collection data is expected to be better than September but still below year-ago levels.
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