In an interview this week, Ornua’s Joe Collins rightly explains that the demand for butter is driving dairy commodity price upwards for the last number of weeks based on scarce supplies in stock and rising demand. Farmers north and south of the border will be expecting to see this reflected in the milk prices due to be set from this week onwards.

While lower skim prices dampen the fat market flames, this combination is still making returns higher than the protein fraction.

It is heartening to hear the EU will not be releasing skim already in stock out on to the market during peak European production.

Our American market analyst friends suggest the demand for butter has been growing year on year since it became healthy again in 2014. The fact the substitution to other fats has largely become a thing of the past helps put a decent foundation in place.

While Collins cautions on volatility, with little inventory in stock, butter stocks have much less meaning in the new world of the butter market. Talking to dairy chief executives five years ago, it’s safe to say none would have predicted the butter market revolution. Back then, protein and whey fractions were far more on trend.