In our analysis of prices paid to 1m-litre suppliers for October milk, Table B shows that Dale Farm is the only processor to pay over 40p/l across all three milk qualities.

Those milk qualities are outlined in Table 1 on the opposite page, with the monthly changes applied across high, average and low solids milk, moving in line with actual butterfat and protein results reported to us each month by processors.

With excellent solids in October 2025, the milk qualities in our 1m-litre analysis are the highest we have ever used.

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In the case of high solids milk, butterfat is at 4.69% and protein at 3.63%, which has helped keep prices at over 40p/l for Dale Farm, followed by Tirlán, Leprino and Aurivo. All four also pay a winter bonus for October milk, unlike Lakeland and Strathroy, who have a 3p winter bonus kicking in from November.

It is the same positional order for average solids milk, with Dale Farm 0.18p/l ahead of Tirlán and 0.93p above Leprino in third. The Dale Farm price includes the 0.66p/l average paid out under its milk production realignment scheme, which rewards producers for increased litres between August and January, over and above reference volumes from 2021 to 2023.

Rolling prices

Shown in Table C are the average prices paid by each processor over the 12-month period from November 2024 to October 2025.

For high solids milk, Tirlán remains in the lead and nearly 0.6p ahead of Dale Farm in second. On average solids milk, this difference between the top two is 0.27p/l.

Across all milk qualities, the rolling 12-month average prices are still over 40p/l. While these rolling averages have been on a downward slide since August 2025, it will probably be into the new year before we see these averages dip below that 40p mark.