The boss of Kerry Dairy Ireland has said that the co-op does not expect milk prices to begin rising until the middle of next year, as he warned suppliers to brace for further price cuts before 2025 comes to a close.
“Unfortunately, we're not in a good place now, so I think that there's further corrections to come over the next number of months,” the co-op CEO Pat Murphy commented at the Irish Farmers Journal’s Dairy Day.
“But as this thing has gone down very quickly, we're absolutely hoping that it will go back up quickly as well, sometime maybe in the middle of next year.
“But at the moment, there's a big difference between what we're getting out in the marketplace for products that we're selling compared to what we're paying to the farmer,” Murphy said, before reiterating that “there are more cuts to come”.
Summer’s prices
Murphy told farmers that co-ops may have been overly loose with their purse strings during 2025’s peak months and that these prices heightened the severity of recent months’ milk price collapse.
Kerry Dairy Ireland CEO Pat Murphy speaking at Dairy Day on Saturday.\ Claire Nash
“It has happened very quickly over the last two or three months, but I would say that maybe that co-ops in Ireland might have been a little bit too high across the summer this year, across the peak season, we were definitely 1c or 2c/l too high.
“So come July and August, there was a lot of milk coming out of everywhere and buyers started sitting back, like buyers said they weren't going to buy product until maybe later on the year.
“And all of a sudden, warehouses got started filling up and that's why you have a crashing milk price.
“It’s been a really good year for dairy farmers, I would say we averaged 50c/l in terms of payout, but there is a lot of pain coming over the next six months.”
Market balance
Murphy stated that a curtailment of global milk output is needed to curb declining price trends in international dairy markets, but that the most recent indications from key markets like the US point to this shift still being a way off.
“It needs to be slowing down across America and in September, American milk solids were up 6% year on year. I mean, that's unheard of, like in the last 20 years,” he explained.
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The boss of Kerry Dairy Ireland has said that the co-op does not expect milk prices to begin rising until the middle of next year, as he warned suppliers to brace for further price cuts before 2025 comes to a close.
“Unfortunately, we're not in a good place now, so I think that there's further corrections to come over the next number of months,” the co-op CEO Pat Murphy commented at the Irish Farmers Journal’s Dairy Day.
“But as this thing has gone down very quickly, we're absolutely hoping that it will go back up quickly as well, sometime maybe in the middle of next year.
“But at the moment, there's a big difference between what we're getting out in the marketplace for products that we're selling compared to what we're paying to the farmer,” Murphy said, before reiterating that “there are more cuts to come”.
Summer’s prices
Murphy told farmers that co-ops may have been overly loose with their purse strings during 2025’s peak months and that these prices heightened the severity of recent months’ milk price collapse.
Kerry Dairy Ireland CEO Pat Murphy speaking at Dairy Day on Saturday.\ Claire Nash
“It has happened very quickly over the last two or three months, but I would say that maybe that co-ops in Ireland might have been a little bit too high across the summer this year, across the peak season, we were definitely 1c or 2c/l too high.
“So come July and August, there was a lot of milk coming out of everywhere and buyers started sitting back, like buyers said they weren't going to buy product until maybe later on the year.
“And all of a sudden, warehouses got started filling up and that's why you have a crashing milk price.
“It’s been a really good year for dairy farmers, I would say we averaged 50c/l in terms of payout, but there is a lot of pain coming over the next six months.”
Market balance
Murphy stated that a curtailment of global milk output is needed to curb declining price trends in international dairy markets, but that the most recent indications from key markets like the US point to this shift still being a way off.
“It needs to be slowing down across America and in September, American milk solids were up 6% year on year. I mean, that's unheard of, like in the last 20 years,” he explained.
Read more
Dairy Day: sense that use of dairy alternatives has peaked – NDC CEO
Dairy Day: water quality poses planning challenges in southeast
Dairy Day: ‘no meat on the bones’ yet in Aurivo and Dale Farm talks
Dairy Day: €400-€500/cow needed in cash reserves going into 2026
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