19 Dec 2008

Drop in milk production after drought

12:15 pm on 19 December 2008

The impact of the past summer's drought on New Zealand dairy production has shown up in the latest dairy industry statistics.

They reveal a drop of more than 6% in milk production for the past season, from the record 15 million litres produced in the previous season.

Milk solids fell by 3% to 1.27 billion kilos.

Production per cow also dropped due to drought conditions.

A continuing decline in herd numbers is also revealed in the statistics.

However cow numbers reached a new record of more than four million, as the average herd size has doubled over the past 20 years to more than 350 cows.