For the first time since late 2017, all the prices paid in our monthly milk league are over 30p/l.

Glanbia Ireland/Fivemiletown leads for the second month in a row, paying 30.74p/l for milk collected on alternate days.

The company has dominated the milk league in 2021, finishing top of the table on four out of five months, with March being the only occasion it failed to claim first position.

A big factor that helped Glanbia stay out in front was its base price of 29.5p/l for May, an increase of 0.25p/l on the previous month.

This base was matched by Aurivo, and bettered only by Dale Farm on 29.8p/l. However, both these processors apply transport charges, whereas Glanbia has no deduction on alternate day collection and this pushed it ahead of its nearest competitors.

Milk quality

The milk league compares prices paid to 650,000-litre producers, and is calculated using one standardised set of milk quality figures taken from DAERA statistics for the same month in the previous year.

For May, these figures are 3.90% butterfat, 3.29% protein, 4.77% lactose, 20 TBC and 195 SCC.

Gap narrowing

With a price increase applied by four processors, there has been considerable movement in the May league table.

Most notably, the gap between the top and bottom of the table has narrowed, down from 1p in April to 0.73p/l.

Lakeland Dairies is up one place to finish third on 30.44p/l, narrowly finishing ahead of Aurivo, which moves up two spots to finish fourth on 30.42p/l.

The west of Ireland processor raised its base by 0.35p/l to 29.5p/l.

Sliding two places to fifth is Dale Farm. Despite leading the pack on a base of 29.8p/l, which includes its 0.3p/l loyalty bonus, transport costs of just over 0.4p/l has a major bearing on its final position.

Glanbia Cheese slips one place to sixth position, while Strathroy remains at the bottom of the table.

However, the Omagh-based processor did add 0.5p/l to its base price, taking the final price paid to over 30p/l.

12-month rolling average

Moving to the 12-month rolling average price, Glanbia Ireland remains top for both daily and alternate day collections.

Glanbia has now led this table since May 2020. On alternate day collection, Lakeland remains its closest competitor and trails by just 0.04p/l, with Glanbia Cheese in fourth.

For daily collection, Glanbia Cheese is third while Strathroy is now tied with Lakeland for fourth.

Read more

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