Australian Dairy Industry In Focus 2009 - Dairying For Tomorrow

Milk production
While farm numbers have steadily
decreased over the past three decades,
milk output generally increased, due
to increasing cow numbers and improved
cow yields up until the major drought
of 2002/03. The following few years were
a period of consolidation for the industry,
with falling cow numbers and seasonal
conditions constraining production. Recent
seasons have seen continuing drought
conditions across many dairying and grain
growing regions, further reducing cow
numbers and limiting any growth in milk
production. Nevertheless, there have been
significant on-farm adaptation strategies
employed to manage the highly variable
conditions of recent years, particularly
in the inland irrigation regions of northern
Victoria, and central and southern inland
New South Wales where water allocations
have been very low for a number of years.
Figure 12
Australian milk production vs indicies of farms and cows milked
12,000
Cows milked (index) Farm no. (index)
10,000
Milk production (million litres)
Million litres
8,000
6,000
4,000
140
120
100
80
60
40
Index
0
1986/87
1987/88
1988/89
1990/91
1991/92
1992/93
1993/94
1994/95
1995/96
1996/97
1997/98
1989/90
1998/99
1999/00
2000/01
2001/02
2002/03
2003/04
2004/05
2005/06
2006/07
2007/08
2008/09 (p)
0
2,000
20
Source: Dairy manufacturers, ABS, State Authorities and Dairy Australia
Figure 13
Seasonality of milk production in Australia, 2008/09 (million litres)
1,200
1,000
800
600
400
200
0
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Source: Dairy manufacturers
Australian Dairy Industry In Focus 2009 17