Dale Farm ups milk price 1p/l for June

A significant price gap could open up across milk buyers in NI for June supplies, with Dale Farm announcing earlier this week that it is adding 1p/l to its May price, taking its base to 28.5p/l, including the 0.3p/l loyalty payment.

Over the last three months, Dale Farm has been out in front in our monthly milk league, and kept slightly ahead of its main rival in NI, Lakeland Dairies.

However, with Lakeland announcing that it is holding base price for June at 26.5p/l, a more substantial gap in prices has emerged.

At the time of going to press, no other prices were available for June.

MPI

Meanwhile, the latest milk price indicator (MPI) from the Ulster Farmers Union has set a price of 28.91p/l for July, a drop of 0.71p/l from June.

The slight reduction in MPI reflects a 7% drop in butter prices over the last four weeks on the weekly Dutch Dairy Board auction and a 5% fall at last week’s GDT auction.

Meanwhile, the latest Ornua purchase price indicator (PPI) in the Republic of Ireland was up 4.4% for June to an index value of 109.

Exchange rate

When converted back to farm-gate prices, the PPI equates to a milk price of 31.1c/l excluding VAT and processing costs of 6.5c/l. At current exchange rates, this converts to a sterling equivalent of 27.4p/l.

PSNI issues road safety message

With a total of 25 people killed on the roads in NI this year, including two fatalities involving accidents with tractors in the last week, the PSNI has urged everyone to keep road safety at the forefront of their minds.

“Over the last week, a number of agricultural vehicles have been involved in serious collisions, so again, we are advising all road users to exercise great care,” said PSNI chief inspector Diane Pennington.

For those using agricultural vehicles, seatbelts must be used where fitted, mirrors should be clear, signals clean, and used before manoeuvring, advise the PSNI.

In a wider message for all road users, the PSNI also reminded drivers on country roads to go at an appropriate speed that will allow them to react to slower moving agricultural vehicles and to be patient.

The reminder comes after a motorcyclist was killed in a crash with a tractor outside Bushmills in Co Antrim on Monday of this week. That followed on from the death of 29-year old Dromore man, Philip Capper, who was the passenger in a John Deere tractor when it left the road outside Drumbo in Lisburn.

AHDB interactive tool for Brexit

Farmers can get some insight into the potential impact of Brexit on their business through the use of an interactive tool on the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) website.

Users are asked to enter input and output data for their business. A report will then be generated predicting the consequences of three possible Brexit scenarios:

The Brexit tool can be found at: https://bic.ahdb.org.uk/