September milk supplies continued the upward trend that started last April when the quota brakes came off. On average, our survey results estimate that September milk supplies are up 14% on average across all processors compared to the same month last year.

Glanbia and some of the west Cork processors report the highest percentage increase in milk supply, up around 20% from the same month last year. This time last year, dairy farmers were beginning to curtail supply as milk quotas filled up and cows were already beginning to be dried off.

Year to date

Central Statistics Office (CSO) results to the end of August suggest year-to-date volumes collected by processors are up 9%. In our survey, individual processors to the end of September report increased figures between 7% and 13% year to date.

In the graph above, LacPatrick replaces Town of Monaghan given the new structure. LacPatrick collects over 550m litres of milk in total, and about 110m litres, just less than 20% of this, is collected in the Republic.

Not alone are milk volumes up, but all processors report milk solids (fat and protein percentages) are also up significantly compared to last year. CSO milk solids also show an increase, with fat percentages up 0.07% and protein percentages up 0.06% compared to the same month last year.