Dairy co-operatives have announced another round of milk price reductions for September supplies, with the most severe cumulative two-month price cut witnessed by Dairygold suppliers.

Dairygold suppliers are to receive a base price of 39.25c/l excluding VAT, after the co-op dropped September’s base by 3.57c/l.

The last two months’ price cuts at Dairygold leave the average 100-cow suppliers’ milk cheques down over €3,200 when compared with the price received in June.

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The co-op stated that “further milk price corrections will be required” and that “current market returns are less than 40.0c/l”.

Tirlán’s September milk price reduction of 3.81c/l excluding VAT was the biggest drop of any co-op for last month’s milk and takes over €3,080 off what suppliers would have been paid in June’s milk cheque.

Tirlán suppliers are to be paid a base price of 39.56c/l excluding VAT for September, with a sustainability action payment of 0.48c/l excluding VAT, adjusted for constituents will be paid to qualifying suppliers. The chair of Tirlán John Murphy said that the co-op is “committed to maintaining financial discipline” in the face of global dairy supplies outpacing of demand quicker than had been expected.

Carbery announced a 2c/l excluding VAT milk price drop that will take its base for September milk down to 42.31c/l as it witnesses “increased milk supplies and subdued demand in key export regions”.

Eligible suppliers will receive another 0.5c/l in somatic cell count bonus and 1.25c/l sustainability bonus on top of base price.

Further price reductions announced by co-ops in previous weeks were Aurivo’s cut of 4.78c/l, Kerry Dairy Ireland’s 4.28c/l, Arrabawn Tipperary’s 4.76c/l and Lakeland Dairies’ 3.8c/l – with all of the cuts quoted excluding VAT.

Even Lakeland Dairies’ drop of 3.8c/l excluding VAT – the lowest decrease of co-op’s for August and September milk – leaves average 100-cow suppliers’ cheques down €1,870 over the last two months.