GB milk production in July is estimated to have totalled 1,028 million litres with daily deliveries for the month averaging 33.16 million litres per day. The total volume for the month is 0.8% (+8.6 million litres) higher than for the same month last year, but sits 0.2% (-1.9 million litres) behind our July forecast.

July 2022 and July 2023 have been almost polar opposites in terms of weather. Last year the UK experienced a prolonged period of hot and dry weather, with temperatures reaching record highs, and the vast majority of the UK being put under hosepipe bans due to the drought like conditions. This presented issues for dairy farmers such as losing grazing and limiting forage stocks for winter, due to limited grass growth, as well as heat stress in their cows. In contrast, July this year has been one of the wettest on record with daily temperatures regularly failing to reach above 20°C. Grass growth has been stellar for the time of year.  However, for some farmers this prolonged wet weather has been causing issues with turn out leading to an increased use of concentrated feeds and, despite the good grass growth, opportunities to cut and collect for forage have been few and far between. The forecast for the next couple of weeks looks to be warmer and drier so we hope this will provide the break in the weather to dry the ground and get silage cut and stored.