Hot and humid weather over the last month has led to a significant shortage of fresh milk on the island.

Dunkley’s, which pasteurises and homogenises the island’s fresh milk before it goes to the supermarkets, estimates that dairy farmers are supplying 30 per cent less than the same period last year.

The firm’s general manager, Stephen Dunkley, said that fresh milk was going straight from “the farm, to Dunkley’s, to the carton” on the same day to keep up with demand.

But he maintained that as the temperatures dropped it would take between 10 and 14 days to restore the island’s fresh milk stock.

“It’s a little worse this year than previous years,” Mr Dunkley said. “I can’t remember an October when stocks were this low.

“It’s all down to the heat and the humidity. Fortunately we do have alternatives in the form of reconstituted milks that we make here and we have not run out of those ingredients in the 38 years I have worked here.

“As soon as the weather drops and we start cooling down again we will get back to where we were with plenty of blue and pink milk back on the shelves again.”

Greenland Dairy, which provides around 75 per cent of Bermuda’s fresh milk, confirmed the drop in supply.

Lidia Medeiros, whose husband Valter runs the dairy, told The Royal Gazette: “It is true that less milk is currently being produced and it is a common occurrence in the summer months in Bermuda.

“The reason for the decrease is because the cows are heat stressed. All three dairies experience decreases in production during the summer.

“Cows prefer the cooler weather so from here on in, as the weather cools down, the cows will produce more. We only had one cow die from heat stress this year, we had five die last year.”

Greenland was recently awarded planning permission to construct a shelter at the Store Hill farm that will provide shade for its herd.

Ms Medeiros said: “We have invested much into this building because we believe that it will help minimise the heat stress on the cows.

“We have almost finished the building and it should be up and functional by mid to end of November.

“Its primary purpose is to shelter the animals from too much heat, bad weather and to make them very comfortable. Bored and comfortable cows make happy cows, happy cows produce more milk.

“We trust that by next summer, Green Land Dairy will not have this milk shortage issue and we are very optimistic that this big step will allow for a consistent supply of fresh, nutritional, local milk.”