WELLINGTON - This season's exceptional milk production has dived sharply, but farm advisers are more worried that cows are going hungry than the Dairy Board is about export earnings.
The Livestock Improvement advisory has reported a "dramatic" fall in milk production in the past three weeks, particularly in the north of
the North Island where drops of 30 per cent from peak volumes have not been uncommon.
The news threatens to punch a hole in rosy forecasts for milk earnings for the 1999-2000 season.
But the Dairy Board said the decline was expected at this time of the season, though it was sharper than usual in the north.
Livestock Improvement adviser David Miller agreed that a drop was normal at this time, "but it is the rate and extent of the decline that has surprised."
He said poorer feed-quality this season was probably to blame.
- NZPA
