West Cork and Lakeland lead May

While the west Cork co-ops and Lakeland are paying a better-than-average milk price, the majority of dairy farmers are getting a price in or around €4.07 per kilo milk solids. All the big players – Aurivo, Kerry, Arrabawn, Dairygold and Glanbia – are in division three.

The west Cork co-ops are paying over €4.30/kg MS, while Lakeland, the major player in the top half of the country, is paying €4.16/kg MS, over 0.14c/kg MS (1c/l) less than west Cork.

However, Lakeland is paying 0.1c/kg MS ahead of the other main players in division three.

So what does all this mean? For a Drinagh supplier in west Cork delivering 14% of 500,000 litres in May, the May milk cheque would be €23,653. However, if you were supplying Glanbia at the other end of the table, you would only be getting a cheque of €22,119 – almost €1,500 of a difference in output when we compare prices on a like-for-like basis (see Figure 1).

So what else has changed since last month? Tipperary Co-op, with suppliers mainly around Tipperary town, dropped milk price for the second month in a row down to €4.07/kg MS in line with the rest of the players.

Boherbue, the small north Cork co-op near Kiskeam, has moved to payment on milk solids (the A+B-C payment system). That means Centenary Thurles is the only entity that doesn’t pay on milk solids. The Thurles lads don’t like losing, and won’t want to lose the Munster Final on Sunday, but they are losing on this front.

Dutch processor FrieslandCampina has guaranteed a milk price of 35c/l for July, which remember is only part of it’s milk price, some 6 c/litre ahead of the main Irish players for May milk at 3.47% protein and 4.41% fat. There is room for an Irish price increase for June and July.

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