Dale Farm, has added another 1p/l to a “market support” payment, taking it to 2p/l for milk produced in May.

With base price remaining at 30.3p/l once a 0.3p/l loyalty payment is included, it leaves the Dale Farm starting point for May milk at 32.3p/l.

Elsewhere, Lakeland Dairies was the only other processor to declare its hand by Wednesday, with the co-op increasing its price by 0.5p/l, leaving suppliers on a base of 30.1p/l – it is the first time the Lakeland base has been above 30p since October 2025.

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Markets

Sources in the trade maintain that they are paying above what the market is currently returning and there is little prospect of any significant increases in farm gate prices in the months ahead. With strong global milk supplies, prices for the major dairy commodities have eased in recent weeks.

On Wednesday, European butter at the weekly Dutch Dairy Board auction was down for the third week in a row to €3,800/t. After a significant recovery in the early part of the year, that price has dropped €900/t since early March.

Both whole and skim milk powder were unchanged at €3,200/t and €2,760/t respectively. Skim had reached a three-year high of €2,980/t in early May, but is back by over €200/t since then.