Dairygold has launched a new fixed-price milk scheme at 28c/litre excluding VAT and bonuses.

The scheme, approved by the Dairygold board on Tuesday, sets a price of 28.13c/l (30.20 c/l at 3.3% protein and 3.6% fat including VAT and bonuses).

The price is almost the very same as the price set by each of the west Cork co-ops, and slightly lower than the base Glanbia fixed milk price offering which was set at 28.65c/l.

Dairygold said that under the scheme, a milk supplier delivering the current average Dairygold milk constituents and achieving the quality bonuses will receive a price in excess of 33.5c/l for the portion of milk they fix.

Like the rest of the fixed-price milk offerings, the Dairygold scheme is a voluntary scheme that will run for 18 months from March 2016 to August 2017 inclusive.

Under the scheme, suppliers will have the option to fix a volume up to a maximum equal to 15% of their 2015 milk supply.

The other 18-month schemes in Carbery and Glanbia run from January 2016 to June 2017.