Friday, March 29, 2024

NZ’s peak milk production down on last season

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New Zealand milk production for October is down 2.7% on year-ago levels. The Dairy Companies Association of NZ’s latest data shows that milk production for October 2015 was down to 263.5 million kilograms of milksolids.
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This was a reduction of 7.4m kilograms milksolids (MS) on the same month last year. Measured on a tonnage basis, the drop is also 2.7%, falling to 3.2m tonnes. 

October is NZ's peak production month. Fonterra has reported that its milk intakes peaked on October 22, and were down 3% on last year’s peak. Other processors have also commented that their peak production was down on last year.

During October and November pasture production typically exceeds demand so the reduction in current milk supply relates primarily to a lesser number of cows being in milk.

AgriHQ’s estimate is that the number of cows in milk at peak this year is 5% lower than at the same time last season.

Culling activity has eased off due to the current surplus of pasture, but is expected to resume at elevated levels as pasture growth slows.

Cumulative milk production for the season (June to October) is down by 3.3%, reaching 621.8m kg MS. By the end of October last season, 34% of the season’s milk had been produced.

See the DCANZ report here

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