Once a 0.85p/l “weather related payment” from Tirlán is included, it has left the gap from top to bottom in our 1m-litre leagues at over 3p/l.

Those prices paid to 1m-litre suppliers are compared in Table B across the three milk qualities as shown in Table 1 on the opposite page.

For high-quality milk at 4.32% butterfat and 3.43% protein, Tirlán/Fivemiletown is the only processor with a final price of over 37p/l, with that price more than 2p/l ahead of second-placed Dale Farm.

Part of the reason for that large price gap is the 1.15p of bonuses Tirlán pay for milk at the parameters for SCC and TBC used in our 1m-litre analysis. By comparison, there is only 0.2p of milk hygiene bonuses incorporated into the Dale Farm price. Similarly, Aurivo pays out 0.9p/l of bonuses for good SCC and TBC, which has helped to ensure its 1m-litre price is competitively placed alongside Dale Farm. In the bottom half of the tables, Leprino is above both Lakeland and Strathroy as its 0.75p/l mozzarella bonus applies at both high and average solids milk. However, it is not paid out on the low solids milk in our calculations, leaving Leprino at the bottom of that particular analysis.

It is also important to note that processors offer different volume bonuses, which range in our calculations for 1m-litre suppliers from 0.3p to 0.65p/l. The one exception to that is Strathroy, with no volume bonuses incorporated into any of the Strathroy prices.

Rolling

Shown in Table C are the average prices paid to 1m-litre suppliers in the 12 months to July 2026, across high, average and low solids milk.

Those 12-month averages continue to drop month-on-month, given that prices of over 40p/l from July 2025 have fallen out of the calculation. It is likely to be the end of the year before this trend is reversed.