Cork clean sweep for April milk league

Cork might not be good at hurling any more but they are very good at paying for milk. That is, all the Cork-based co-ops except Dairygold. Dairygold are rock bottom of the April milk league, paying a price of €2.99 per kilo milk solids (21.3c/litre) excluding VAT. The other six Cork-based co-ops fill the top six positions of the 15 milk processors in the April milk league.

The small north Cork co-op Boherbue tops the league, paying a price of €3.44/kg MS (24c/l), almost 3c/l ahead of Dairygold. This difference will further fuel rivalry between the near neighbours.

Most of the rest dropped March price. Boherbue, LacPatrick and Centenary Thurles were the only three processors to hold March price for April. Average milk price excluding VAT for April has dipped under 23c/l average for the first time. The average price comes out at €3.23/kg MS.

Aurivo dropped like a rock down the April table as they have no bonuses for April milk. They are just ahead of Dairygold, paying €3.07/kg milk solids (21.8c/l excluding VAT) having dropped from paying €3.39 last month. The average Dairygold milk cheque at national average solids is back almost €1,300 compared to a milk cheque from any of the west Cork co-ops for the average supplier with 300,000 litres.

Ornua bonus

Of note this month, Tipperary Co-op states that it is including the Ornua 1c/l bonus in the base milk price. Last month, North Cork and Glanbia stated they were paying out the Ornua bonus.

Glanbia has a base April price of 22c/l and states there is 2c/l of co-op support. Last month, it paid out the Ornua bonus but I understand a small outstanding balance has still to be paid. Where is the rest of the Ornua bonus? Milk suppliers in Glanbia, North Cork and now Tipperary have been alerted that they received a separate Ornua bonus. I have not been alerted to any other co-ops paying the Ornua bonus out separately. I imagine some will incorporate the total €15m Ornua bonus as part of the pot available for milk price.

The Kerry bonus for milk under 200,000 SCC has increased to 0.4c/l from 0.3c/l this month. This is a conditional bonus so is not included in the league opposite.

€1,200 difference

Figure 1 shows the difference in payout between processors for the standardised litre at 3.49% protein and 4.11% fat supplied during the month of April. It shows the difference in the April milk cheque for a supplier with a normal seasonal spring supply curve (12% in April) for a farm that will produce 300,000 litres (66,000 gallons) in the year.

So this graph shows the price paid on a comparative milk solids basis, allowing for a fair comparison between Irish processors. You can see this month there is over €1,200 of a difference in the April milk cheque between the processors paying top price for April and Dairygold who is once again paying the lowest price this month.

Difference

Figure 2 shows the difference in the April milk cheque for the different milk solids collected from each of the different processors. Farmers should be rewarded for better milk solids so if a processor is getting less milk solids it will pay a lower price and rightly so as it can make less product from that milk.

The combination of good milk price and good solids puts Barryroe on top once again for April.

The main European dairy players – France, Germany and Holland – all lead the April milk price, well ahead of any of the Irish processors.

The Swiss-based Emmi milk processor that handles a lot of fresh product such as Swiss cheese and ice cream, tops the international table for May with a price of 43c/litre (see table below).

The Swiss processor is followed closely by the Italian speciality processor Granarolo at 36.54c/l.

After that, there are a fleet of French processors paying in and around 30c/l. The US Class 3 price for manufacturing milk is also up over 30c/l. Two big export players internationally – Arla from Denmark and Friesland from The Netherlands – come in just under 27c/l, which is about 4c/l ahead of the average Irish price (23c/l).

However, remember FrieslandCampina announced the guaranteed price for raw milk for May 2016 will be 25c/kg. The guaranteed price for May therefore decreases 2.5c/kg compared with April (27.5c/kg).

The Dairy Crest (UK) price is under the average Irish price at 22.5c/l. Also the New Zealand Fonterra price equates to about 20.3c/l at the same milk solids as our Irish league as the season comes to an end in the southern hemisphere.

Despite the relatively poor milk prices, Irish milk supplies continue to grow relative to 2015 supplies.

While figures are just being finalised, of the major players, Lakeland reports the largest increase in supply – a 10% lift in supply compared to the same period in 2015.

Of the other big players, Glanbia is next in line, reporting an increase of 7% compared with May 2015. Dairygold also reports an increase for May 2016 compared with May 2015, reporting an estimated 4.7% increase. The west Cork co-ops are up about 5% compared with last year.

Along the western seaboard, the increase is not as great but there is still an increase reported. Aurivo is up 3% compared with last year and Kerry is up 2% compared with May 2015. All figures reported above are tallies as the final figures will be collected and analysed over coming days.