The latest figures from the EU Milk Market Observatory show a 2.3% fall in milk collections for the first quarter of 2017 compared with the same period in 2016. The most notable difference in monthly collections was February, recovering to the same levels as 2016 in March.

Some of the main milk producers in the EU had a decrease in production. For example, Germany fell by 4.4%, France by 4.2%, the UK fell by 3.2% and The Netherlands was also down 0.5%.

Meanwhile, Irish production was up by 1.1% and Poland saw a rise of 3.5%.