Dairy cows and foremost the Holstein-Friesian breed has more than doubled its milk yield over the last 40–60 years. They often average more than 30 L per day with some producing more than 60 L during peak lactation. Due to flattening of lactation curves milk production levels before dry-off (DO) have also increased. The objective of this study was to describe the levels of milk production immediately before DO in 2 European countries, France and Denmark. Milk production levels were collected at herd and animal level during a multicenter prospective cohort study including 558 dairy cows from 37 herds in France and 347cows from 21 herds in Denmark. All dairy cows dried off during the study duration were included. Additional information on production parameters at herd and cow level were collected. Information on milk production 24 h before the last milking before the dry off and the methodology was recorded. Abrupt dry-off implied no prior change in either milking frequency or feeding regimen. Gradual dry-off implied any change in these routines. Overall, the milk production when the cows were dried off gradually decreased to 13 to 14 kg the day before dry off. Among the cows dried-off abruptly, the milk production the previous day of the dry-off differed between Denmark (25.1 kg) and France (14.5 kg). Populations from the 2 countries varied in other parameters such as breed, parity and overall milk production level. These study demonstrate that the milk production cut-off to dry off cows differ among farmers in France and Denmark. While French farmers dry off cows gradually with in mean (SD) 14.4 (6.1) and abruptly 14.5 (5.3) kg milk/24 h, Danish farmers dry cows off gradually with 13.4 (7.4) and abruptly 25.1 (10.8) kg milk/24 h. Milk production during the 24 h before the dry off were thus lower in cows included in France irrespective of the applied dry off method. A third (113 of 347 included cows) of the included Danish cows were dried off abruptly with more than 15 kg/24 h, which may be detrimental from an udder health perspective.