Despite the heatwave which has engulfed Europe for much of the summer months, German milk production has held up and continued to expand.

For the month of June, German dairy farmers produced just under 2.7bn litres of milk, which is up 2.4% on the same month last year.

This brings German milk production for the first half of 2018 (Jan-Jun) to just over 16bn litres, which is more than 3% ahead of the same period in 2017.

Largest milk producer in Europe

If the pace of production growth continues in Germany, which is the largest milk producer in Europe, milk production from the country’s dairy farmers could break the 32bn-litre mark this year.

In neighbouring France, which is the second-largest dairy producer in Europe, June milk collections were just under 2bn litres, which represented a 1.4% increase on June 2017.

For the first six months of 2018, French milk production stood at 12.4bn litres, which is just over 1% higher than the same period last year.

Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, milk production for July fell by more than 1% year on year to just over 1.1bn litres.