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Increases to base milk prices for September mean all processors are now paying above 40p/l for the first time since January 2023.
On average, base prices rose by 1.3p to 40.73p/l and when combined with the rise in milk solids, prices paid are running more than 2p/l ahead of the previous league table.
Outlined in Table B are the prices paid to a 1m litre supplier for milk produced at high, average and low solids, with the parameters for each milk quality outlined in Table 1 on the opposite page.
For high solids milk, prices averaged 44.8p/l across all processors, up from 42.4p/l in the previous league.
High solids
Tirlán continues to lead our analysis, paying 46.12p/l under its hybrid A+B-C model with the published price almost 5p/l above its starting base.
Dale Farm remains in second place on 45.06p/l, almost 4p/l ahead of its base while Lakeland Dairies jumps two places to third on 44.92p/l.
Its position is significantly boosted by the co-op’s decision to pay its enhanced increments from a 3.85% and 3.19% base for butterfat and protein, starting from 1 July 2024.
A 50% increase in the Lakeland volume bonus also applies from September.
Outside of the top three, Leprino Foods moves up two spots to fourth with Aurivo slipping one place to fifth and Strathroy dropping to the bottom of the table.
Average solids
For milk produced at average solids, Tirlán overtakes Dale Farm with a price of 44.76p/l, while both Lakeland Dairies and Leprino Foods move up two places to finish third and fourth respectively.
Rolling 12 months
With milk prices increasing in nine of the last 12 months, the rolling average price continues to trend upwards across high, average and low milk solids.
Tirlán leads across all three milk parameters for the 12 month period ending September 2024. For high and average solids milk, Dale Farm is second, Aurivo third and Strathroy fourth. For low solids milk, Strathroy retains second place.
The only positional change in Table C from last month, sees Lakeland Dairies overtake Leprino Foods for fifth place in prices paid for high solids milk.
Milk quality
While the monthly league is calculated at a standardised fat and protein, Figure 1 estimates the monthly pay-out to a 750,000l supplier, using the average fat and protein values recorded by each processor for September. Tirlán has the highest pay-out of £23,320 followed by Dale Farm on £22,802. Despite finishing bottom of our monthly milk league, Aurivo is in third thanks to the higher solids produced by its suppliers for the outlined month.
Based on: average sized supplier (750,000 litres/year)
average seasonality of supply; average quality milk; 3.4% protein; 4.26% butterfat; 4.67% lactose; TBC 24 thousands/ml; Somatic cell count 206 thousands/ml
Milk prices rolling average: October 2023 to September 2024
Net price (p/litre) for various milk qualities in
– assuming alternate day collection.
(brackets include ranking by price paid)
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