Most dairy farms inaccessible to milk lorries for up to six days were saved by last-minute collections as co-ops resumed normal service earlier this week, but some farmers had to dump milk in to slurry tanks.

“We had to dump 17,000l on Thursday night,” said Bryan Daniels, who runs early calvers 960ft above sea level near Pilltown, Co Kilkenny.

By Sunday night, he had cleared the road with his neighbours and contractors and the lorry was back in the yard.

Glanbia was the processor most directly affected by snow problems and it will pay 20c/l including VAT for dumped milk that is not covered by insurance. The cost is to be shared between Glanbia Ireland and the co-op.

A spokesman said lost volumes would be small after catch-up collections yielded 25m litres in three days, including a record 11m litres into Belview on Monday.

Dairygold reported “a very small amount of milk discarded”, adding that the co-op’s board had yet to decide whether to pay for it. Lakeland and LacPatrick said their suppliers did not dump any milk. Farmers in the Carbery catchment in west Cork towed milk lorries with their tractors or brought portable tanks to the main roads to keep collections going.

Milk collections getting back on track

Watch: clearing roads for milk collections in Kilkenny

'Small amount' of milk dumped on snowed-in farms

Despite heroic efforts by farmers, co-ops and hauliers, some farms remained without milk collections for nearly a week as snow blocked access roads.