There was more downward pressure on milk price for the month of June, with Arrabawn Tipperary, Aurivo and North Cork Creameries all cutting the price of milk. These co-ops follow the lead set by the four west Cork co-ops, Kerry, Boherbue, Tirlán, Dairygold and Centenary, which cut milk price for May.

Looking at the table, an argument could be made for only running a division one and a division three, as there is a significant gulf between the price the majority of co-ops are paying and the price set by Drinagh, Lisavaird, Barryroe and Bandon.

At the top of division two is Kerry Dairy Ireland, which is paying €6.656/kg MS for June – 8.7c/kg MS behind Bandon Co-op, but 8.9c/kg MS ahead of the next co-op in division two, Aurivo. Despite dropping by 10c/kg MS in June, Aurivo held on to its division two place.

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However, the same cannot be said for Arrabawn Tipperary, which went from being mid-ranking in May to bottom of the league for June. The newly formed co-op dropped its base price and unconditional bonus for June, which amounted to a cut in milk price of 12.5c/kg MS.

This time 12 months ago Arrabawn was in division one, while Tipperary Co-op was at the bottom of division three. Now the joint entity is at the bottom of the league, which won’t please either group of suppliers. However, it’s important to not just look at the monthly price when judging a co-op’s performance as the cumulative price compares how much it has paid out year-to-date.

The Tirlán board will be glad to see that it’s no longer bottom of the league, despite not making any changes to milk price. Most of the co-ops didn’t change milk price for June, but then again most of them already cut the price in May.

From a markets perspective, the Global Dairy Trade (GDT) is holding up fairly well with positive results at the last two auctions. That said, there has been a cumulative decline of 2.3% since early July. In Europe, butter prices have declined by €370/t over the last five or six weeks. Cheese and skim milk powder are more stable.

From a supply perspective, up to the end of May milk supplies in Germany were back 2.7%, France back 1% and Netherlands was back 1.9%. New Zealand has got off to a great start, with favourable weather leading to a 17% increase in milk solids in June, albeit from small volumes.