The board of Lakeland Dairies met on Thursday afternoon and agreed to cut its base farmgate price for July by 1c/litre to 27c/litre including VAT.

The move follows a 3.8-point drop in Ornua's product purchasing index (PPI) for the month of July, down to 91.5 points. Another fall hit the price of commodities at the Global Dairy Trade (GDT) auction earlier this month.

Lakeland already cut its base price by 0.75c/litre last month, in line with most other co-ops in the country.

In an interview with the Irish Farmers Journal this week, Lakeland's chief executive Michael Hanley said that barring a weather event or feed crisis in a major producing region, we are "looking at a weak market for the next nine months".

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