There is no change to the division one players for June, but the order of who is at the top has changed. Aurivo claims the top spot for June with a milk price of €5.825/kg of milk solids at the national average solids.

It has to be said there is very little difference in price across divisions one and two, with €300 of a difference in typical milk payment between Aurivo at the top of division one and Tirlán at the bottom of division two.

At the other end of the table, Tipperary Co-op continues to lag far behind the rest. Even though the west Tipperary-based processor increased milk price by 1.5c/l, including VAT for June, it can’t get off the bottom spot.

The only other co-op to increase milk price by as much was Kerry, but both are still in division three for June.

There is now almost €5,600 of a difference in milk receipts to date between our typical Tipperary Co-op supplier and Lakeland Dairies, the co-op with the highest cumulative payments.

June is a big month for payments and every 1c/l of a payout equates to millions of euro for the larger co-ops.

With milk supplies back by 5% to 6% for the first six months of the year, most co-ops are under some financial pressure but to varying degrees. This might explain why for the second time this year that the Ornua purchase price index (PPI) for June is ahead of the average actual payout.

The PPI for June was 42.38c/l excluding VAT but including the Ornua value payment (the share of the Ornua bonus that goes back to the co-ops). Meanwhile, the average payout on a cent-per-litre basis for June is 41c/l.

Looking at division two, this has been dominated in recent months by the west Cork co-ops and Tirlán.

The west Cork co-ops nudge ahead of Tirlán and Centenary Thurles this month, with all of them increasing milk price by around 1c/l.

Global scene

Looking at the global scene, milk supplies are continuing to shrink in both Germany and the Netherlands with June deliveries back 2.2% in the Netherlands compared to June 2023.

Production in Germany was higher than last year for the first few months, but it ended May 0.2% lower than May 2023.

Supplies in New Zealand and the US are also back, so there is no glut of milk coming on the world market.

Despite this, markets are still wobbly and we saw the GDT drop 6.9% at the auction before last, which was a shocker, but it has since stabilised.