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October is the second consecutive month that all processors of NI milk have left base prices unchanged. However, the addition of winter bonus payments at four of the six processors in our milk league analysis means the average starting price did increase by 1.18p/l to 47.95p/l.
The corresponding price for the same month last year was 31.97p/l. Where a farmer produces 70,000 litres during October, that increase in price has added £11,200 on to milk sales.
Shown in Table B are the October prices paid to a 1m litre producer of milk at three different levels of fat and protein, as outlined in Table 1 on the opposite page.
High milk solids
For high solids milk, prices averaged 51.24p/l, an increase of 2p/l on September.
As is the case in the 750,000-litre league, winter bonus payments have resulted in major positional changes for October.
Dale Farm climbs two places and finishes out in front on 52.04p/l, ahead of Glanbia Cheese in second on 51.86p/l.
Despite trailing Aurivo by 0.5p/l on starting price, Glanbia Cheese has a 0.4p/l mozzarella payment and a higher volume bonus of 0.65p/l.
Although it is in third place, Aurivo is still up two places from last month. Moving in the opposite direction, Tirlán slips three places to fourth with Lakeland Dairies dropping to fifth, ahead of Strathroy in sixth.
For milk produced at average solids, prices across all processors again increase by 2p/l to 50.53p/l.
Dale Farm leads on 51.28p/l, although the gap to second-placed Glanbia Cheese is much closer compared with that for high solids milk.
Aurivo is again third, ahead of Tirlán, Lakeland and Strathroy.
Twelve-month rolling average
Moving to the 12-month rolling average prices as shown in Table C, Tirlán dominates across all three milk qualities.
For high solids milk, Tirlán leads on 43.69p/l. There are no positional changes when compared to the previous month. On average solids milk, Tirlán has topped this analysis for 24 consecutive months.
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