Base prices for NI milk are at their highest level for 18 months and that uplift is filtering through to our monthly and rolling price league analysis for a dairy farmer producing 1m litres annually.
Table B shows milk prices for July, calculated at high, average and low solids to reflect the impact that differing levels of butterfat and protein have on farmgate milk prices. The values used for each milk quality are outlined in Table 1 on the opposite page.
For high solids milk, the average price across the board is 40.61p/l, up 1.4p/l from the previous league. It is also the first time since February 2023 that all processors have paid above 40p/l for high solids milk.
With its payment model geared towards rewarding higher milk solids, Tirlán leads on 41.5p/l, despite trailing other processors on base price.
Strathroy moves up three places to finish second with Aurivo climbing one spot to third.
Dale Farm drops two places to fourth, but remains ahead of Lakeland and Leprino.
Average solids
Moving to average solids, the price across all processors has increased by 1.3p to 39.74p/l. Strathroy takes the lead on 40.31p/l, with Tirlán slipping to second and Aurivo up two places to third.
Leprino Foods finishes in fourth thanks to its volume and mozzarella bonuses.
Rolling 12 months
Base prices have been slowly rising since November and this has seen the 12-month rolling average prices gradually creeping up. For high solids milk over the 12-month period ending July 2024, prices have averaged 36.9p/l, an increase of close to 0.8p/l from the previous league.
Tirlán remains out in front and with no positional changes across the table, Dale Farm remains its closest competitor.
On average solids, prices have increased by 0.7p/l from the previous league and again, there are no positional changes for July.