Unlike near neighbour Lakeland, LacPatrick co-op is incentivising farmers to join a Bord Bia quality milk scheme.

From the end of January, Lakeland will be imposing a 2c/litre cut on suppliers who have not signed up to the Sustainable Dairy Assurance Scheme (SDAS).

LacPatrick announced this week that a 0.25c/l top-up is there for anyone signed up to the SDAS.

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Dairygold is also offering an incentive to join the scheme but a board member of LacPatrick, formerly Town of Monaghan, said the board was united in wanting to use the carrot rather than the stick to get farmers to sign up.

“You’re already judged for your quality of milk with SCC, TBC and solids. If your milk doesn’t meet that level then you get a cut ... they’re the real measure of milk quality. I’m not sure how any board could stand over a process to cut milk price even further.”

Hard to argue with that.