The EU Commission has released milk production figures for April, which show the the 28 member states produced 437m litres of milk per day in the month.
AHDB Dairy looks at the figures: "This was 5m litres per day more than April last year, although that only equates to a year-on-year increase of 1.1%.
"Between October 2015 and March 2016, the EU-28 was running 5% up on the previous year.
"Breaking the data down by country, shows milk production continued to increase in Germany and Netherlands, but fell in the UK, France and Ireland.
"Ireland was running 28% up in March, but recorded a 4% decline in April as a result of poor grazing conditions and low milk prices.
"However, because of the over-quota situation in Ireland in March 2015, there were reports that some milk was held over from March to April in order to avoid additional super-levy penalties.
"As such, Irish milk production in April 2015 was probably inflated, which will explain part of the year-on-year fall recorded this year.
"According to the Irish Farmers Journal, Irish milk production is up again in May, with most milk buyers recording year-on-year increases of 5-10%."
