Aurivo Co-op in the west of Ireland held base price for April at 28.6c/l ex VAT and is the best of the co-ops for April milk if we exclude the high-performing west Cork co-ops. Tipperary Co-op also held its April price, however, they were bottom of the March and February milk leagues.
Aurivo’s holding of price will go some way to helping dairy farmers in the west of Ireland and is a vote of confidence in the co-op and dairy markets strengthening. Aurivo’s April price is over 1.5 c/l ahead of the big players in the south and east. At standard solids, it’s between €900 and €1,000 of a difference in the April milk cheque for the standard supplier with 500,000 litres (See Figure 1).
The west Cork co-ops are paying just shy of 30c/l ex VAT at 3.3% protein and 3.6% fat while the big players, Dairygold, are paying closer to 27 c/l ex VAT at the other end of the April milk league. When we standardise the difference in milk solids and compare the price essentially there is almost €2,000 of a difference in the April cheque when we compare top and bottom.
Glanbia is paying out an unconditional 0.19c/l biodiversity bonus on all April milk to bring April payment to 3.87/kg MS or 27.6 c/l.
Winners
Losers