A number of processors have increased base prices for milk produced in April.

Dale Farm and Lakeland both set their prices ahead of Balmoral Show, with Lakeland up 0.75p to a base of 29.6p/l, while Dale Farm announced a 1p/l increase, alongside an additional 1p/l market support payment, taking its starting point to 31.3p/l.

That starting point is ahead of Tirlán, who remain on a base price of 30.9p/l, although once adjustments are made for transport costs and milk quality, it is likely that those positions will be reversed in actual prices paid to an average NI supplier.

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Elsewhere, Leprino Foods added 1p/l for April milk taking base to 28.75p/l. Strathroy applied the same 1p/l increase, which took its base price to 29.5p/l. On Tuesday, Aurivo confirmed an increase of 0.75p/l, taking its base to 30.5p/l, with that price including 1p/l support from the Aurivo milk price stability fund.

We will have a full analysis of April prices in our milk league next week.

Despite NI milk prices being down by over 13p/l when compared with early 2025, the latest production statistics published by DAERA show record litres were produced in both January and February 2026.

Across the two months, production totalled 479.5m litres, up 4.5% on the same months in 2025 and nearly 12% ahead of equivalent data from 2024.

Auctions

At the latest New Zealand Global Dairy Trade auction on Tuesday the overall price index was up 0.6%, leaving the overall weighted average price at US$4,198/t. That follows on from a 1.5% increase earlier in May, but some significant price reductions in April. There was also little change in European prices at the Dutch Dairy Board auction on Wednesday. Butter was stable at €3,900/t, with whole milk powder up €50 at €3,260/t, while skim milk powder was down €20/t at €2,960/t.