Domestic milk intake by creameries and pasteurisers remains steady with a further 6.1% increase for May’s supply, based on the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
2021 has caused many challenges for farmers to deal with. To start with, it was a late and wet spring, that turned into two to three months of exceptional growth, followed by drought conditions.
1,183.6 million litres were taken in May, a 6.1% increase from 2020 figures when 1,115.3 million litres were processed.
Looking at the figures for the year to date, 3,608.4 million litres have been processed so far, an increase of 8.3% from 2020 figures when 3,331.6 million litres were taken in.
Domestic milk intake
Taking a closer look at breakdown of some of the figures, we can see that the total milk sold for human consumption increased from 46.2 million litres in April 2021 to 50.1 million litres in May 2021.
This figure is also an increase from the 2020 figure when 47.3 million litres were sold for human consumption.
The data analysis is of the whole milk purchased by creameries and pasteurisers from domestic producers through collection depots and separating centres, including whole milk obtained from herds owned by the creameries and pasteurisers.
Taking a look at the fat and protein figures for the month of May we can see that average fat was 3.94% – an increase from May 2020 when the figure was 3.87%.
But, this is a decrease compared to April when the figure was 3.98%.
Moving to protein in May 2021, the average protein for milk supplied was 3.49% – an increase from April 2021 when the figure was 3.45%.
For skimmed and semi-skimmed milk, 16.7 million litres were sold in May, up from 15.7 million litres in May 2020 and 16.3 million litres in April 2021.
Butter production reached the highest level of production since May 2019, with 31,000t. That is an increase of 500t from April when 30,500t were sold.
Moving to skimmed milk powder for the month of May; the latest figures from CSO had no updated figure for skimmed milk powder.