AUSTRALIAN dairy farmers have had a bumper year with milk production up 6.4 per cent from last year.
Dairy farmers can breathe a sigh of relief with big improvements in Tasmanian and Victorian outputs thanks to a good season.
Victorian dairy production is up 8.8 per cent per cent from September last year and Tasmania is also up a whopping 10.7 per cent, according to Dairy Australia's latest report.
But the report was not rosy for all, with Queensland down 6.3 per cent and Western Australia suffering a 7.6 per cent reduction.
Dairy Australia industry analyst Peter Wilson said Queensland was still struggling because of the floods and cyclones.
"But the rate of decline seems to be slowing," he said.
"We can't say when they'll be back on track, but it is slowing."
Mr Wilson said Western Australia had a very strong season last year, even though it was in the middle of a severe drought.
"It seems strange, but they did a lot of supplementary feeding with grain and that upped production," he said.
"So the decline is just that it's come back down to normal now they're back on pasture."
He said the southern season started slowly in July and August because it was wet across Victoria, but dried out with warmer weather and lower rainfall over spring.
In Victoria, the northern region did best, boasting an 11.4 per cent increase in milk, and the western region managed 5.5 per cent.
Production dropped by 4.4 per cent in Gippsland, but this was because of extra moisture.
Mr Wilson said the lift in production had been expected because there was plenty of ground moisture and rain eased off earlier than usual.
"We needed a little bit of warmth to get things growing," he said.
"Production is certainly past spring peak now, but it should hold on for a bit longer than usual this season. To date, it is a 3.5 per cent increase across Victoria which has been great."
But he warned not to expect the next season to be so good. "It won't continue at 6 per cent, but it will still be positive," Mr Wilson said.
