Tirlán holds price for December and promises the same for January and February

Tirlán has announced it will hold its milk price for the month of December and has said it intends to do the same for January and February supplies.

Its base price will remain at 34.05c/l excluding VAT at 3.6% butterfat and 3.3% protein.

A seasonality payment of 4.78c/l excluding VAT will be paid to qualifying suppliers and to non-contracted volumes from its autumn calving and liquid milk scheme.

The Tirlán board confirmed its intention to hold the current milk price for the first two months of the year, subject to any unforeseen events.

Tirlán joins Dairygold in holding its milk price for December supplies, while Lakeland Dairies, Kerry Dairy Ireland and Carbery have all announced cuts.

Bonuses

In addition to the base price, a sustainability action payment of 0.48c/l excluding VAT will be paid to qualifying suppliers.

The base price, seasonality payment and sustainability action payment will be adjusted to reflect the actual constituents of milk delivered by suppliers.

The average price paid by Tirlán for December creamery milk, based on delivered constituents, will be 50.73c/l excluding VAT.

Tirlán also confirmed that unconditional seasonality bonus payments will be paid over the next three months on any milk volumes that do not qualify for liquid premium or the autumn calving scheme.

The rates of payment are 5c/l for December, 7c/l for January and 5c/l for February. The payments will be adjusted to reflect the constituents of the milk delivered.

Change to VAT

This month’s milk payment is based on the reduced VAT flat rate addition, which applies for payments made after 1 January 2026.

In Budget 2026, the Government reduced the VAT flat rate addition for non-VAT registered farmers from 5.1% to 4.5%.

Based on Tirlán’s VAT-inclusive milk price of 36.08c/l announced by the board for December, the milk price this month for December milk should be reduced by 0.21c/l to adjust for the reduction in the VAT rebate from the Government.

The co-op’s board said it will absorb this cost in the short term, but confirmed that it will be reflected in milk pricing from March milk onwards.

Business outlook

Tirlán chair John Murphy said that the co-op’s board and management have completed an intensive week, meeting milk suppliers at eight meetings across its catchment area.

“It was great to engage with our farmer members across the country. Farmers are understandably concerned at the dairy market outlook, but appreciated that the co-op is doing all it can to support them.

“At the meetings, we told our milk suppliers that we are currently paying somewhat ahead of market returns. This reflects our desire to support our milk suppliers over what are very high-cost production months.”

Murphy added that Tirlán will act in whatever way it can to support its farmers.

“We have already significantly started this journey with our €5.5m agri support package which was announced in December.

“I would encourage all milk suppliers to engage with their local Tirlán representative and consider trading with their own co-op to avail of that support.

“The board will continue to monitor market developments on a monthly basis,” he stated.

In December, Tirlán Co-op announced a targeted €5.5m dairy support package aimed at supporting milk suppliers through the early stages of the 2026 lactation.