For the fifth month in a row Tirlán / Fivemiletown leads the NI milk league having paid a final price to its suppliers of 34.05p/l for milk produced in March.

That price is calculated for an average sized supplier in NI, producing 750,000l annually in line with a typical supply curve. The milk quality used in our calculations is as recorded by DAERA for the same month in 2025, when butterfat averaged 4.28%, protein was at 3.33%, with SCC of 178 and TBC of 17.

Those milk qualities are very similar to our February league, with butterfat unchanged and protein down by just 0.01 percentage points.

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There are a number of positional changes when compared to February, with processors in the bottom half that month all increasing their prices paid in March, while those in the top half all paid a lower final price.

That includes table-topping Tirlán, with its 3p/l winter bonus no longer applying. However, the co-op did increase base by 1p, taking it to 30.9p/l and it has confirmed this base will hold into April and May “subject to any unforeseen events”.

Dale Farm also applied a 1p/l increase to base and with its 1p/l 13th payment also factored into the March price, the co-op moves up from fifth to second and just over 2p/l behind Tirlán.

Aurivo is up to third even though a 2p/l winter bonus on February milk has dropped off. The co-op effectively cancelled that out by a 1p/l increase to base and 1p/l from its milk price stability fund. The final price paid is up slightly in March because of a higher volume bonus when monthly litres cross 60,000.

In the bottom half of the table, Lakeland Dairies and Leprino Foods are joint fourth on a final price of 31.08p/l. Lakeland did add 2.55p/l to its base price in March, but a 3p winter bonus and 1.75p/l input support payment dropped out. Leprino increased its base price by 0.75p/l.

Strathroy was the only processor not to increase base price in March and with its 3p winter bonus not applying, it moves from second in February to the bottom of the table in March.

Rolling average

Also shown as part of our main analysis is the rolling average price paid to a 750,000l supplier from April 2025 to March 2026.

These rolling averages are down by around 1p compared to our last league as prices of approximately 45p from March 2025 have dropped out of the analysis.

Tirlán leads with a rolling price of 39.49p/l, with Dale Farm just 0.27p/l behind in second and over 1p/l clear of Aurivo in third. Included within the Dale Farm average is its 1p/l 13th payment, which is applicable on all litres from April 2025 to March 2026.

Payout

Shown in Figure 1 is our best estimate of the actual payout made by each processor to a typical 750,000l supplier in March, based on the actual butterfat and protein recorded by each company.

With the highest milk solids and the best price per litre, it is no surprise that Tirlán is well out in front. The payout by all processors is up significantly in March, due mainly to more milk being supplied than in February (67,905 versus 58,979 litres).