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Lakeland Dairies is the first processor in NI to set a price for milk supplied in June, raising its base by 2.5p/l to 44p/l.
Once top-up payments on milk quality are applied, Lakeland Dairies has confirmed that it will pay an average farmgate price of 45.46p/l.
Announcing the June price, the co-op said that market returns remain strong, helped by limited milk supply growth in key producing regions on the back of seasonal trends and rising input costs.
“Current market conditions will continue to provide good returns for the foreseeable future,” concludes the Lakeland statement.
MPI
Meanwhile, the latest milk price indicator (MPI) from the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) has seen a marginal increase of 0.05p/l to 48.91p/l.
It is the fifth increase in a row for the MPI, which is now just shy of the record 49.08p/l set back in early April.
NI production down
A squeeze on milk output is a key factor in keeping returns high, and that trend from key producing regions is also being mirrored in NI, statistics recorded by DAERA show.
NI production over the first five months of 2022 is running 1.18% higher than the same period in 2021, but most of that increase was realised in January (up 3.1%) and February (up 2.2%).
In March and April increases were below 1%, while May production is actually 0.6% down on the same month in 2021. It is only the third time in over five years that monthly milk production in NI has been down year on year.
The DAERA figures also show that farmgate prices averaged 42.39p/l for May.
This is up 1.19p/l on April and 11.89p/l higher than May 2021.
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