Domestic milk intake by creameries and pasteurisers was estimated at 618.9 million litres for October 2019. This was 3.6% below the corresponding 2018 figure, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
In the latest figures, published by the office on Friday, November 29, comparison between October this year and last year also shows that total milk sold for human consumption increased by 1.2% to 45.7 million litres.
Meanwhile, it was found that butter production was down 0.1% to 20,260t.
This saw a rise from 6.87 billion litres to 7.34 billion litres, according to the CSO.
In the month of October 2019, it was found that, of the 45.7 million litres sold for human consumption, some 28.8 million litres went as whole milk sales, up from 27.3 million during the same month in 2018.
Meanwhile, 16.8 million litres of skimmed and semi-skimmed milk were sold last month, down 1.1 million on the 17.9 million litres sold in October 2018.
No figure has been released yet for either skimmed milk powder or cheese for last month.
Of this, Ireland recorded 6.2 million tonnes – up 9.1% on the 5.7 million tonnes for the eight months of the previous year.