Milk production is dropping rapidly over the last few weeks as we trundle through November, but how does your herd compare to the average?

The latest data from the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) shows that 140,453 cows have been recorded between October 27 and November 6.

This was a result of 1,253 herds' milk recordings over the last 10 days, with an average herd size of 107, and bringing the total number of cows recorded in 2026 up to 1,131,038 from 8,944 herds.

According to ICBF, the average production from the last 10 days has being sitting at 14.66kg/milk/cow.

Average fat has climbed to 5.02%, while protein is sitting at 4.19%, equating to a total solids production of 1.34kg/cow.

This is back from average production in mid-October, when cows were putting out 16.15kg/milk/cow at 4.97% fat and 4.26% protein, equating to 1.44kg of milk solids.

Despite the relatively good conditions, current milk production is back on the same week as last year, when cows were producing an average 15.67kg/milk/cow at 5% fat and 4.15% protein, equating to 1.42kg of milk solids.

Milk production

Despite production dipping, it is important to balance the diet as grass quality falls off, as there is still a number of weeks to dry off.

There is still a good volume of milk solids to be produced, for example, if a 100-cow farm can keep solids above 1.3kg, there is a total of just under 3,000kg of solids to be sold to the co-op.

With milk prices creeping in the right direction into winter, these solids will help farmers gather cash to get cows over the winter.

Teagasc is advising farmers to have a figure of €500/cow in working capital reserve available to get over the winter.

To achieve this, keep on top of diets and maximise milk production here in the shoulder of the year.

It is also important to stay on top of milk quality, keeping somatic cell counts, thermodurics, and total bacteria counts as low as possible to ensure you qualify for any available bonuses.

Farmers will also have to be ruthless with cull cow strategies, offloading animals which are not pulling their own weight, as these will only eat into profits rather than generate it.