Milk production plummet not as bad as feared

Instead of the predicted 7 per cent to 9pc drop from the 9.3 billion litres of the 2017-18 year, Dairy Australia figures instead show the year finished down 5.7pc with 8.8bL.

Part of this was driven by better than expected results in northern Vic and southern NSW.

In SA, milk production remained more or less on par, just 1.58pc down on the year before.

This was the second lowest drop nationally, behind Tas, which was down 0.37pc.

SA finished the year with 496.3 million L, down from 504.3mL in 2017-18.

It began the financial year strong with increases on of 3.3pc in August, year-on-year, and 6.1pc in September, before production declined on the previous year's figures from December onwards.

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The worst declines came in April and May, which were 10.8pc and 10.1pc down on April and May in 2018, respectively.

The state most affected by production drops was Qld, which ended the 2018-19 year down 10.2pc on the previous year, while Vic was down 6.8pc, and NSW down 5.4pc.

WA production declined 2.9pc, year-on-year.

The figures also show SA's average milk fact increased 1.2pc between June 2018 and June 2019, from 3.92pc to 3.96pc. This was on top of an increase from 3.86pc in June 2017.

But average protein percentages decreased by 0.2pc in the past year from 3.33pc in June 2018 to 3.32pc in June 2019, although this was up from 3.31pc in June 2017.

SA and Tas were the only states to increase the average butterfat, bringing the national average to a neutral 4.23pc - same as 12 months earlier.

Nationally the protein levels increased by 0.1pc.

DA anticipates a further drop in national milk production of between 3-5pc to 8.3-8.5bL during the 2019-20 season, due to continued high input costs and the reduced size of the national herd.