The story of the Irish Farmers Journal August milk league is dominated by Cork. Boherbue and Dairygold are exclusive members of division 1, paying over €4.70 per kg for August milk. Meanwhile, the four west Cork co-ops find themselves in the unfamiliar territory of division 3.

All four west Cork co-ops supply Carbery Group. Product mix appears to be the main issue, with cheese a drag on returns. Dairygold is also strong in cheese, but appears to be benefiting from its strong position in infant nutrition, particularly demineralised whey.

Co-ops with a strong position in milk powders and butter – Aurivo and Arrabawn – continued to perform well in August. Bar a major collapse in the coming months, both appear poised for their best ever ranking when the final milk price tables for full-year 2014 are compiled. Tipperary also had a good month, climbing to fourth for August after being seventh in July.

Boherbue, a north Cork co-op that delivers its entire milk pool to the Cadbury milk plant in Rathmore, Co Kerry, paid the top price for manufacturing milk in August.

Its price of €4.73 per kg of milk solids was marginally ahead of Dairygold. Boherbue is a small operation, with just 80 suppliers and 22m litres of milk.

It is one of the few remaining processors that do not participate in the annual Irish Farmers Journal KPMG Milk Price Review, but consistently pays a strong price to farmers.

Depending on how well it holds its price for the next three months, Ireland’s largest co-op, Dairygold, could potentially top the Irish Farmers Journal /KPMG Milk Price Review for 2014 – something it has not achieved since 1992.

The Glanbia prices for protein (A) and fat (B) in August result in a payment of €4.3811/kg of milk solids on a milk league basis. However, an additional 2c/litre was paid to all suppliers from the 2013 Price Stability Fund. As this was a non-conditional payment per litre received by all suppliers, it is included in our milk league calculations, bringing their price for the month to €4.676/kg of milk solids. This 2c/l payout moved Glanbia from 11th to seventh in the August league.

Analysis of Glanbia’s milk price is further complicated by its advance announcement of a 0.5c/litre Glanbia Co-op payment on all 2014 milk supply at year end – subject to shareholder approval. This payment is conditional on signing the milk supply agreement.

It is interesting to note that Glanbia suppliers with milk in the fixed milk price schemes are now starting to see the benefits kick in. Of course, for the first half of the year, they were net losers as a result of this welcome risk reduction measure. Given the current price outlook for early 2015, those in fixed price appear set to gain for a number of months.

The Irish Farmers Journal milk league table is ranked on the price paid for a kilogramme of milk solids, using the 2013 national average milk solids of 3.39% protein and 3.94% butterfat. Co-ops quote base prices based on 3.3% protein and 3.6% fat. The simple average milk price for August was €4.565/kg milk solids, a drop of 2% from the July average of €4.706/kg milk solids. Further cuts have been announced for September.