After almost two years of decline, Dutch milk production appears to have stabilised and has returned to growth.

For the month of August, Dutch milk production grew by almost 1% year on year to just over 1.1bn litres.

This growth continued into September, with milk production from Dutch dairy farms last month rising almost 2% year on year to 1.07bn litres.

This is the first time that milk production in the Netherlands has shown growth in almost two years.

Prior to August, Dutch milk production had declined for 18 consecutive months, as farmers were forced to cull cow numbers to meet strict new phosphate quotas.

These latest production figures bring Dutch milk production for the first nine months of 2019 (Jan-Sept) to a cumulative 10bn litres, which is 2%, or more than 200m litres, behind the same period in 2018.

Germany and France

Meanwhile, August milk production in Germany, the largest milk-producing country in Europe, rose by 0.6% year on year to 2.6bn litres.

This brings German milk production for the first eight months of 2019 (Jan-Aug) to a cumulative 21.3bn litres, which is 0.5% behind the same period last year.

In France, the EU’s second-largest milk producer, August milk production increased 1% year on year to 1.9bn litres.

This brings French milk production for the first eight months of 2019 to a little over 16bn litres, which is 1%, or 200m litres, behind last year.

In Poland, farmers continue to pump out plenty of extra milk. August milk production in Poland grew more than 2% to just under 1bn litres. This brings Polish milk supplies for the first eight months of 2019 to 8bn litres, which his 2% ahead of last year.