Dale Farm, Glanbia Ireland and Lakeland Dairies have all increased their milk price for April supplies to 40p/l or above.

Dale Farm announced a 1p/l increase which puts its suppliers on a base of 40.05pp/l, inclusive of its 0.3p/l loyalty bonus.

Glanbia Ireland/Fivemiletown will pay a starting price of 41.65p/l for April thanks to the introduction of a new agri-input support scheme worth 2.5p/l last month.

The payment is applicable to all litres supplied to Glanbia last month, both on standard pricing and that supplied under fixed price contracts.

The support payment will be reviewed every month and altered accordingly depending on market returns.

The 2.5p/l payment will also be made on top of the 38p/l base in Glanbia Ireland’s latest fixed price scheme, which commenced on 1 April. Uptake of the scheme is understood to be strong, with supply volumes to be finalised in the coming days.

Lakeland

Last week, Lakeland Dairies increased its base by 2.5p/l to 40p/l. However, NI’s largest milk processor also announced it would pay an additional 7p/l on all milk committed under its fixed price contracts from April to the end of 2022.

Of those farmers in a Lakeland scheme, most receive a guaranteed base of 28p/l from October to March, reducing to 26p/l from April to September. However, the actual volumes of fixed price milk supplied to the co-op are small.

Price moves

Elsewhere, Strathroy Dairy has opted for a 2p/l increase for April supplies, bringing its base to 38.5p/l, while Glanbia Cheese has added 1.5p/l, putting suppliers on a starting price of 39p/l.

A full analysis of April prices will feature in next week’s milk league.

DAERA stats

Meanwhile, statistics recorded by DAERA show that the average farm gate milk price in February was 36.69p/l, up from 34.85p/l for January and 30.21p/l for the same month last year.

Production continues to rise with February supplies totalling 204.17m litres, up 4.5m litres on the same month last year.

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