April milk production in the US was up 1.2% on April last year, the latest figures from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) show.

Milk production in the 23 major States during April totalled 16.8 billion pounds while production per cow for the month of April in the 23 major States averaged 1,948lbs for April, 19lbs above April 2015.

This is the highest production per cow for the month of April since the 23 State series began in 2003 and production per cow has continued to increase each month in 2016 compared to the corresponding months last year.

Furthermore, the figures show the number of milk cows on farms in the 23 major States was 8.65m head, 21,000 head more than April 2015, and 4,000 head more than March 2016.

Total milk production in the US during April totalled 18.0 billion pounds, again up 1.2% from April 2015.

Production per cow in the United States averaged 1,929lbs for April, 20lbs above April 2015.

In April this year, the number of dairy cows on farms in the United States was 9.33m head, 15,000 head more than April 2015, and 4,000 head more than March 2016, the USDA data shows.

Meanwhile as is the norm with the monthly update from the USDA, March revised production, at 17.2 billion pounds, was up 1.8% from March 2015 and the March revision represented an increase of 7m pounds or less than 0.1% from last month’s preliminary production estimate, according to the USDA.

Global milk production up 3.4% in January-February

Global milk production increased by 3.4% in January-February 2016, mainly due to strong production growth in the EU, the latest meeting of the Milk Market Observatory’s (MMO) Economic Board found last month.

EU milk collection was up by 5.2% in January-February, with percentage increases particularly strong in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Luxemburg and Belgium.

New Zealand production was also higher than expected in February (up 2%), but is likely to end up slightly down for the season.