December 28, 2012

UK's daily milk output in dairy farms has been cut down by 1.1 litres to 24.1litres a cow due to unfavourable weather conditions across the country.

Average milk production for October 2012 was reported as 993 million litres, a 6.5% drop on the same month in 2011, and the lowest since 1994.

The shortfall, which is increasing each month since June, can also be attributed to increase in price of forage crops, such as corn and silage, due to poor harvesting in soggy conditions, according to figures by Dairy Group.

Dairy Group managing director Ian Powell was quoted by BBC as saying, "Being a dairy farmer is a challenging business at the best of times and never more so than in 2012."

Average feed cost has soared as dairy farmers feel the repercussions of the weather for at least another year.

However, the government figures reports the yield is about 7,315 liters per cow per year, which is well above the EU average, despite the drop from the weather this year.