UK dairy farmers are on course to produce the most milk collectively in 20 years, according to DairyCo.
It says the 2014/15 milk year which comes to a close in March looks set for a strong finish, with deliveries likely to continue to be around 10% above the 5-year average for the final quarter of the year.
DairyCo says while the growth in milk deliveries in comparison to last year is diminishing, it says this is more the result of the strong recovery of milk supplies during the second half of the 2013/14 milk year than restricted growth this year.
According to DairyCo with few factors currently at play to significantly change production patterns going into the spring flush, it is likely that milk production over the remainder of the current season will continue to run at around 10% above the 5-year average.
It says this leads to the potential for 2014/15 milk deliveries to reach the highest UK production total in the past 20 years, exceeding 14 billion litres.
Irish Production
Latest figures show the monthly intake of milk in November by creameries here in Ireland was 13% down on the same month last year according to the Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney.
Speaking recently on the now likely superlevy fine he said the figure suggests farmers are taking on-farm measures to reduce their exposure to potential super levy payments
Irish dairy farmers are over quota nationally by 6.51% according to the Department of Agriculture latest figures.
This is a decrease on the end-October figure of 7.15% but is significantly above the 1.38% over-quota position of this time last year, the Department of Agriculture has said.