Domestic milk intake by milk processors and co-ops was estimated at 774.7 million litres in September 2025, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

The latest data published today (Thursday, November 6), shows this represents an increase of 7 million litres (+0.9%) when compared with September 2024.

The figure is also up 11 million litres (+1.4%) on the same month in 2023.

Fat content for September 2025 was 4.69%, up from 4.60% in September 2024.

Protein content decreased slightly to 3.84% in September 2025, compared with 3.89% a year earlier.

Skimmed milk powder (SMP) increased from 10,900t in September 2024 to 13,100t in September 2025, up 2,200t.

CSO

The CSO said that in quarter 3 (Q3) 2025, domestic milk intake was estimated at 2.72 billion litres.

This is up 97.1 million litres (+3.7%) when compared with the same period in 2024 and marks an increase of 37 million litres (+1.4%) when compared with 2023.

For the period January to September 2025, domestic milk intake was estimated at 7.37 billion litres.

The data shows that this is a rise of 399.5 million litres (+5.7%) when compared with the same nine-month period in 2024 and by 92.1 million litres (+1.3%) on 2023.

The milk intake has increased for each month in 2025 when compared with the same month of 2024, except for February.

Stephanie Kelleher, statistician in the Agriculture Section of the CSO, said that analysis has been carried out on 50 years of domestic milk intake data since 1975.

"We can see that domestic milk intake more than doubled over this period increasing from 310.8 million litres in September 1975 to 774.7 million litres in September 2025.

"It is also interesting to note the impact of the introduction and abolition of the European milk quota on milk production.

"The quota was introduced in April 1984 and abolished in April 2015 - domestic milk intake increased as a result.

"The highest figure for the month of September was in September 2022 at 785.6 million litres," she said.