Some 14,988 farmers representing 85% of milk suppliers are certified under the Sustainable Dairy Assurance Scheme (SDAS), according to Bord Bia.

Another 1,885 have applied for certification, bringing the total number of participants to 95% of Irish dairy farmers. This leaves under 1,000 suppliers left to apply.

Strathroy is on track to become the next fully certified milk processor by the end of August, with only three of its 164 suppliers in the Republic remaining to clear audits, said managing director Ruairí Cunningham. This means the 3c/l penalty first announced for April, then September would not apply to anyone: “It was more to concentrate minds,” said Cunningham.

Aurivo’s suppliers have all applied for SDAS certification, 90% of them successfully. A penalty of 3c/l will apply from October to farmers who have not yet had their first audit.

Dairygold and Arrabawn are each reporting 99% of applicants and 88% certification among suppliers. While Dairygold pays a 0.1c/l certification bonus, Arrabawn applies a 1c/l penalty to uncertified suppliers.

“As segregation of milk is not practical either at collection or in the factory for processing, if your farm is not approved it is highly likely that we will be unable to collect milk from your farm after the end of this year,” Arrabawn wrote to its suppliers this month.

Arrabawn and Glanbia said they had staff visiting farmers to help them with audits.

LacPatrick is reporting 74% participation and 63% certification among suppliers. While the co-op is paying a 0.25c/l certification bonus, this will end next January with a 2c/l penalty applying to non-participants instead.

Lakeland and Kerry said all suppliers had applied to the scheme, with small numbers remaining to be certified. Lakeland will apply a 2c/l penalty to those not certified on 1 January 2018.