Last week’s comments by a Kerry milk supplier that he was more interested in another conversion of Kerry co-op shares than in the 13th payment didn’t go down well with fellow suppliers.

The farmer was up-front in admitting that he has co-op shares with a see-through value of €500,000. But, contrary to what he expected, 2,000 suppliers have now signed up for mediation with Kerry Group over the 13th payment to be followed, if necessary, by binding arbitration.

“A lot of young farmers in Kerry, Clare and Limerick don’t have any shares,” one supplier told the Dealer. “Our parents have them. I’m in that position. So, I have neither shares nor a good milk price. I gave up a job to go milking on the back of a promise by Kerry to pay the leading milk price – now that hasn’t materialised. A friend of mine is in the same position.”

He said: “I supply about 450,000l to Kerry. I reckon that as a result I’m down €6,500.” That is on the basis of Jack Kennedy’s analysis in February, which found that all four West Cork co-ops paid 1.4c/l more than Kerry in 2015.

This supplier is 35 years old. He and the girlfriend are trying to build a house.

“God help anyone in my position with a young family.” He said: “Stan McCarthy claims that Kerry doesn’t have to match the West Cork co-ops because they have earnings from other sources. But he didn’t make that point when he was promising to pay the leading milk price. Now he only wants to match Dairygold and Glanbia.”

This week, the Dealer was talking to the dairy farmer who proposed the words “the leading milk price” in the Kerry milk supply contract, that’s PJ McQuane from West Clare. The original wording was “a leading milk price”.

“On the day Stan McCarthy accepted the change from ‘the’ to ‘a’ and there was no talk of this business of ‘like-for-like basis’,” PJ told me.

However, he would be happy that any comparison would have to be on a like-for-like basis. “There has to be trust between the farmers and management and the days of ‘tipping the manager into the tank’ are gone. Management and Kerry co-op need to sort out once and for all how ‘the leading milk price’ should be measured, or this argument will just roll from one year to the next.”