West of Ireland based Aurivo co-op is on top of the NI milk league for the third month in a row, having paid a leading price of 42.22p/l for July.

All NI milk processors cut their price in July and in the case of Aurivo, it was a 0.6p/l reduction, taking base to 40.5p/l.

Despite that, the Aurivo July price is only down 0.25p on the previous month, which is partly due to slightly higher milk solids used in our July calculations, but also on the back of new incentives relating to milk hygiene. For milk with SCC at or below 200, the Aurivo bonus has increased from 0.2p to 0.3p/l.

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Supply curve

The July milk league calculates the price paid to an average 750,000l producer in NI with a typical monthly supply curve, using milk qualities based on the NI average recorded by DAERA for the same month in 2024.

For July, butterfat is set at 4.10%, with protein at 3.32%, TBC of 21 and SCC of 198.

Those milk qualities might be slightly up when compared to June, but July remains one of the lowest months for milk solids of the year.

Despite a range of different price deductions across processors, all prices paid remain over 40p and the final positions in our league are unchanged from June.

Tirlán / Fivemiletown remains in second on 41.95p/l after it cut base by 0.75p, taking it to 39.15p.

Lakeland effectively took 1p/l off its price, but remains third, just ahead of Dale Farm in fourth.

While Dale Farm only applied a 0.5p/l cut, which might have been expected to leave it third, the Lakland price is helped by an increase in its volume bonus – from April to June, this bonus is reduced by 50%.

At the bottom of the table, Leprino Foods has the lowest base price of any processor at 38.25p/l, but its 0.75p/l mozzarella bonus helps take it ahead of Strathroy.

Rolling average

Also included as part of our main milk league analysis is the rolling average price paid by each processor over the 12-month period from August 2024 to July 2025.

All positions are unchanged, with Tirlán continuing to lead this analysis, closely followed by Dale Farm and Aurivo.

These rolling prices have been steadily increasing each month over the last year as milk price in the current month is higher than that from 12 months earlier. However, that trend looks set to end next month, unless there is a significant pick up in market sentiment by then.

Payout

Shown in Figure 1 is an estimate of the payout made by each processor to a typical 750,000l producer in July, but using the actual milk solids recorded by each company.

Aurivo is just in front on £27,561, with Tirlán in second place on £27,528.

Higher solids allow Dale Farm to move ahead of Lakeland Dairies.