NI’s largest dairy co-op, Dale Farm, has confirmed it will include a 13th payment of 1p/l on all litres produced by suppliers over the last milk year.

The payment will be included in the April milk cheque and with the co-op processing over 1bn litres from April 2025 to March 2026, it is a total payout of over £10m.

A Dale Farm spokesperson said it is the largest 13th payment ever issued by the co-op and is on the back of “strong business performance” over the 12 months to the end of March 2026.

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Over the previous two years, the Dale Farm 13th payment was 0.5p/l.

The 2026 payout compares favourably to 13th payments issued by other co-ops in recent years, which have tended to sit around the 0.5p/l mark. In the case of Lakeland Dairies, it paid 0.25p/l on all 2025 litres and 0.65p/l on 2024 litres.

March prices

Meanwhile, a number of NI processors have set prices for milk supplied in March.

The Lakeland base is up 2.55p/l to a starting point of 28.85p/l, although the actual prices paid will be down when compared to February, given that a 3p/l winter bonus drops out, as does a 1.75p/l input support payment.

A 3p/l winter bonus also no longer applies to Tirlán’s price, although it has increased its base by 1p/l, taking it to 30.9p/l inclusive of a 0.4p/l sustainability payment. The same 1p/l increase has been applied by Dale Farm, which takes its base to 29.3p/l once a 0.3p/l loyalty payment is added in.

The co-op has also adjusted payment increments for butterfat and protein, to apply from 1 April. Over the first three months of the year, each 0.01% change in butterfat was valued at 0.034p and each 0.01% change in protein at 0.055p/l. These increments have now been adjusted to 0.037p and 0.061p/l respectively.

DAERA figures show that local production remains strong, although there are signs that the rate of increase is starting to fall off a little.

In January, NI output stood at 247.4m litres, up 4.6% on the 2025 figure and 13.8% ahead of January 2024 production.

Last year, NI produced a record 2.82bn litres of milk, up nearly 8% year-on-year, with the highest monthly increase seen in April at 10.65%, followed by August at 9.7%. Since then, the rate of increase has dropped each month, with December output up 5% on the same month in 2024.

In Britain, production was up 3.9% in January 2026.

Commodities

With global supply volumes remaining robust, it continues to create some nervousness in the market. At the Dutch Dairy Board auction on Wednesday butter was down €80 at €4,100/t, with Whole Milk Powder unchanged at €3,300/t and skim down €20 at €2,700/t.