Glanbia has an unconditional 2c/l December bonus which pulls its price to the top of the league table.

Centenary Thurles follows suit to match the Glanbia payment as it sells most of its milk to Glanbia.

The rest of the co-ops essentially lifted 1c/l across the board except for Lakeland Dairies.

Lakeland, which had been leading the monthly league for most of the year, lifted 0.5c/l but still dropped down the pecking order as others moved up.

While Kerry also lifted its December price, it is now very lonely in division three as neighbours Boherbue lifted price and suspended a conditionality on feed purchase.

This saw Boherbue jump up the league, leaving Kerry to prop up the bottom of the table.

Not included in this league are the announcements by the west Cork co-ops and Aurivo to pay a top-up milk price.

Carbery must have been watching the monthly league closely all year and has decided to pay a 0.5c/l top up on all 2021 milk supplies. I estimate this would amount to about €3m of an end of year payout.

Aurivo also has been keeping some in reserve and has said it is paying out 0.5c/l on quarter one 2021 supplies, which could be in the region of a cumulative €600,000 of a topup for suppliers.

Finalising December price means we can compare a full year of the Ornua equivalent PPI with the average milk league figure.

The December gap is 4.5c/l between what Ornua said it got from the market and the average payout from the co-ops.

The total difference amounts to €128 per cow for the year between Ornua and the average league pay out.