The Irish Farmers Journal understands that a number of amendments have been made to the Glanbia plan to put a price restriction on extra milk produced during the peak months.

The initial plan involves paying farmers 30% less for additional volumes of milk over and above their reference milk volumes for the months of April, May and June.

Glanbia have previously confirmed that this could turn into a penalty if milk volumes continue to grow.

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The plan was announced two weeks ago and since then there has been considerable farmer shock and anger at the news.

The board of Glanbia Ireland met on Monday to review the plan

Those with most to lose are farmers in expansion mode – many of whom have already invested in extra facilities and new entrants. New entrants are now limited to milking 100 cows.

The board of Glanbia Ireland met on Monday to review the plan. This was then followed by a meeting of the Glanbia council.

Changes

The Irish Farmers Journal understands that a number of tweaks have been made to the plan. These include;

  • Increasing the April reference volume from 11.3% of total annual supply to 11.7% of total annual supply.
  • Introducing a third category of farmer producing less than 400,000l annually. This category can increase production by 10% compound growth annually to 550,000l, at which point the annual rate of growth will be capped at 5% and then 2.5% above 550,000l.
  • Farmers must exceed a minimum threshold before money will be deducted for supplying extra milk. This is to avoid Glanbia having to collect small quantities of money from suppliers.

  • Farmers who supply additional volumes and have a milk supply curve which exceeds that of the Glanbia average supply curve at peak will not be penalised for all milk produced above the average supply curve. Instead, they will just be penalised on the additional volume at peak over and above their reference volume.

    • Further clarifications and updates will be published later.