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The average milk yield per cow grew 4% while the average purchase price of milk declined 8%, Statistics Estonia said. 

A new record was reached in the production of milk in the third quarter at 215,600 tons, 3.8% more that last year. This volume also exceeds the record from the first quarter by 0.4%.

Compared with last year, milk production grew most in Laane County, by 13.6%, and declined most in Voru County, by 18.7%. Jarva, Parnu and West-Viru counties, which produced the largest volumes of milk in the third quarter, saw their production increase by 1.8%, 6.1% and 0.8%, respectively.

Low purchase price of milk remains the greatest concern for milk producers and the entire agricultural sector. The purchase price was 278.72 euros per ton in the third quarter, 7.8% lower than in the same quarter the year before.

Dairy companies purchased 92.5% of the milk produced.

The average milk yield per cow exceeded the previous record high, reaching 2,528 kilograms -- 3.8% more than in the same quarter in 2019. 

Meat production in the third quarter totaled 20,257 tons, 5.6% more than a year ago. Veal production grew 18.9%, pork production 2.5% and the production of poultrymeat 7.2%. 

While the quarterly number of eggs produced has remained stable at 40 to 42 million, egg production is generally exhibiting a downward trend, according to Statistics Estonia.

The number of bovine animals in Estonia was 260,100 in the third quarter, nearly unchanged on year. The number of milk cows was was smaller by 0.1% at 84,900. 

The number of pigs was 314,800 -- 1.2% higher than last year and 2.8% higher than in the second quarter. 

The number of sheep and goats declined 5.3% to 84,600 and the number of poultry grew 8.8% on year to close to 2.3 million, having declined 5.9% compared with the previous quarter, however.

While Estonian farmers are making an effort to increase their milk and meat production, they will not be able to persist for long at the current purchase prices, according to Statistics Estonia.