LacPatrick Dairy made a shock move by cutting its 0.2p/litre bonus paid to farmers in Northern Ireland who supply milk that meets the Red Tractor Assurance Scheme standard.

In a letter addressed to suppliers, the co-op states it will no longer pay any bonus on Red Tractor assured milk supplied from 1 January 2018 onwards.

Furthermore, a penalty of 0.5p/litre will be applied to all milk supplied from non-Red Tractor assured farms, effective from the same date.

This gives suppliers seven months to join the scheme if they wish to avoid any price penalties.

LacPatrick also states that it requires all of its northern suppliers to be Red Tractor assured from 1 January 2019 onwards.

Further details will follow in next week’s Irish Farmers Journal.

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