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Glanbia Ireland/Fivemiletown has climbed three places to finish top of the NI milk league for April, paying 30.69p/l for milk collected on alternate days.
Despite holding its base on 29.25p/l, which is 0.55p/l below that offered by Dale Farm, Glanbia edges out the NI co-op by 0.1p/l.
April saw Glanbia introduce its new milk payment structures designed to encourage suppliers to produce higher milk solids.
In the first year of a four-year transition, its new base for butterfat and protein is 3.85% and 3.2% respectively. For every 0.01% increment above base levels, butterfat is worth 0.021p/ and protein worth 0.037p/l. These increments significantly increase over the next four years.
Edging ahead
However, in the first year, Glanbia is only really catching up with the price adjustments used by the likes of Dale Farm and Lakeland. In fact, Dale Farm continue to pay slightly more than Glanbia for combined fat and protein.
However, Glanbia pays more on TBC and SCC, and have also introduced a 0.25p/l volume bonus (for over 500,000l), and no longer charge for transport on alternate day collection, which effectively boosts its milk price by an additional 0.2p/l.
Taking everything together, this helped Glanbia make up the shortfall on base price and finish ahead of Dale Farm for milk supplied in April.
Milk quality
The NI milk league compares milk prices to farmers supplying 650,000 annually, and calculates the final price paid using DAERA statistics for the same month in the previous year. For April, calculations are based on 4.03% butterfat, 3.27% protein, 4.76% lactose, 19 TBC and 189 SCC.
Dale Farm was one of two processors to increase its base for April, adding 0.25p/l, bringing its starting price to 29.8p/l.
However, despite paying the highest base, it is also only one of two processors (along with Aurivo) to apply transport charges on alternate day milk collection.
In the case of Dale Farm, its transport charge deducts just over 0.4p/l for April.
Behind the top positions, Lakeland Dairies slips three places to fourth, with Glanbia Cheese dropping two places to fifth.
Aurivo raised its base by 0.4p/l to 29.15p/l, but still finishes sixth, with Strathroy Dairies rounding out the table.
12-month average
Meanwhile, Glanbia Ireland continues to dominate the 12-month rolling average for a 650,000l producer, topping price leagues for alternate and daily collections.
On alternate day collection, Lakeland remains in third followed by Glanbia Cheese, while Dale Farm moves up one place to tie with Strathroy for fifth.
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