Provisional data to the end of November 2016 shows that UK milk collections in November stood at 1.11m tonnes, 7% lower than the same month in the previous year. This is also 3% lower than the three-year average for the month of November.
In total, the cumulative collection figure from the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) by the end of November provisionally stands at 13.4m tonnes. This is 3.9% lower than at the same point in 2015.
Initial indications from daily collection figures show that December figures will also be lower than in the previous year. Compared with 2015 Eurostat figures, the final numbers could be more than 5% lower in December 2016, showing an overall fall of 4% for the full year.