When compared to a year ago, production this April was 33% down. This was the result of the late summer drought which meant a large number of dairy cows were dried off much earlier than usual. The drought severely impacted the northern half of the North Island and to a lesser degree also affected production in the southern North Island and parts of the South Island.
On a cummulative basis production for the season from 1 June 2012 to 30 April 2013 is -0.4% less than it was in the previous season. Data for the month of May is expected to be show a similar deficit in percentage terms to the April data.
Click here to download the latest official New Zealand milk production report
