Dairygold top on total August payout

A typical farmer supplier in Dairygold received the largest milk cheque in August. Figure 1 shows the sum of money a typical 230,000 litre supplier to each processor would have received last month. The ranking is slightly different to the main table opposite for three main reasons – conditional bonuses, milk solids content and fat:protein payment ratios.

In Figure 1, all conditional bonus payments are included, but they are excluded from the main table. For example, a number of processors have bonuses for milk with an average somatic cell count (SCC) of under 200,000/ml. The main league is based on an SCC of 300,000. The other main difference is milk solids. In order to compare prices on a fair and accurate basis, the milk league uses the average solids for Irish milk supplied in 2013 – 3.39% protein and 3.94% butterfat. However, Figure 1 is based on the average solids of the milk received by the co-op last month. Milk collected by Dairygold in August had an average of 3.54% protein and 4.07% fat; milk in Town of Monaghan was much lower at 3.32% protein and 3.77% fat. This impacts on total payout – higher solids makes for more saleable product and more money to the farmer. Dairygold’s base price at 3.6% fat and 3.35 protein was 35c/litre but its actual average payout was 38.6c/l (both prices including 5% vat rebate).