There has been strong interest in the latest fixed price milk contracts offered to dairy farmers in NI with Dale Farm, Glanbia Milk and Aurivo reporting their respective schemes were oversubscribed.
Dale Farm confirmed that 585 suppliers applied for its latest contract, representing around 47% of its members. Almost three times more milk was offered than in the previous fixed price scheme.
The new contract pays a guaranteed base of 29p/l from October to March, reducing to 26p/l from April to September over three years, starting 1 January 2021. It was initially available for up to 30% of the annual volume provided by each supplier. But due to the high level of interest registered, the maximum volume that can be committed will now be scaled back to 47.4% of that originally applied for.
Dale Farm has issued the final contracts to suppliers in recent days which must be returned by Monday 14 December.
Glanbia
Elsewhere, Glanbia Milk’s latest fixed price contract has been taken up by around 60% of its suppliers, which would be in excess of 100 farmers.
While there was no upper limit on the volume farmers could commit, the Irish Farmers Journal understands that the average farmer has around 15% of annual supply committed.
The scheme pays a guaranteed base of 27p/l and comes into effect from November 2020, ending in December 2022.
Aurivo
Aurivo also received significant interest in its scheme, and while it has yet to finalise the number of suppliers and volumes committed, it is oversubscribed and volumes will be scaled back as necessary.
Lakeland
Lakeland Dairies reports its latest fixed price contract offering has been well received with close to 160 suppliers entering the agreement.
These suppliers have been given a 5% or 10% allocation as requested, which will be paid a minimum base of 28p/l from October to March and 26p/l from April to September.