Milk quota over-run estimated at 8m gallons

DAIRY farmers will heave a sigh of relief as the clock ticks past midnight tonight, and milk collection tankers go on the roads to relieve overflowing stores of milk on farms.

The volume of milk being stored on dairy farms over the past few days may have reached an all-time high as producers took last-minute action to minimise a superlevy fine of up to €12.5m for over-production in the current EU milk year.

Approaching the weekend, it was estimated that milk production for the year was running at around 8 million gallons over the national quota, after adjustment of the volume intake for butterfat changes.