Drinagh Co-op in west Cork tops the Irish Farmers Journal cumulative payments in the monthly Milk League for 2025. After including the December payment, Drinagh paid out a total of €289,670 for milk in 2025, slightly ahead of its neighbours and co-shareholders of Carbery, Lisavaird, Bandon and Barryroe.

Across the 45,000kg of milk solids that the league is based on, the price equates to €6.44 per kilo of milk solids (kg MS), and this price excludes VAT. At the other end of the scale is North Cork Creameries, who at this point have paid the lowest price for milk at €275,724 or €6.13/kg MS excluding VAT.

Just above North Cork in the table is Dairygold Co-op who paid a total of €276,244 for milk, which works out at €6.14/kg MS. It’s important to note that both Dairygold and North Cork usually pay out a top-up or thirteenth payment to suppliers.

If a payment will be made for 2025 and at what level is a decision taken by the boards of each co-op depending on how the financials are looking for the year just gone.

Other processors such as Aurivo, Kerry Dairy Ireland and the four west Cork co-ops also usually have a top-up or thirteenth payment. This means that the west Cork co-ops are likely to push further ahead if, as expected, a top-up is announced.

It’s hard to see them being knocked off the top of the league, based on the difference between them and the next nearest to the top, Kerry Dairy Ireland. It’s been a good year for Kerry suppliers, as this time last year they were second from the bottom.

Of course, a lot of the milk being processed by North Cork Creameries is collected from within the Kerry Dairy Ireland catchment.

These suppliers who see their milk go to Kanturk rather than Newmarket, Listowel or Charleville have not only lost out on Kerry plc shares, but also on the higher milk price in 2025.

Where most of the North Cork milk will go in 2026 is being speculated on currently, with doubts over the processing capacity at Kanturk, given the issues with the waste water treatment plant. Watch this space.

Lakeland Dairies have already announced and paid their retrospective payment of 0.29 c/l excluding VAT and this is reflected in these figures.

At recent supplier meetings, Tirlán chair John Murphy ruled out retrospective payments for Tirlán suppliers, saying that the co-op pays the best price it can each month and holds nothing back.

This table will be updated as more retrospective milk price payments are announced for 2025. To clarify, the monthly milk league is based on the typical national supply profile and is based on the A+B-C payment system at national average solids.