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Lakeland Dairies tops the NI milk league for August supplies, halting the table-topping run of seven consecutive months by Tirlán, formerly known as Glanbia Ireland.
A 1.5p/l increase for August put Lakeland in a commanding position which others were unable to match. The Lakeland starting price at 47.5p/l, was almost 0.5p/l ahead of the base price of its nearest competitor.
Once premiums are applied on milk quality, Lakeland finishes with a price of 48.64p/l paid to 750,000-litre producers for milk collected on alternate days last month.
Milk quality
The prices published in the August league table are calculated for a farmer supplying milk at 4.04% butterfat, 3.3% protein, 4.7% lactose, 22 TBC and 244 SCC, with these figures taken from DAERA statistics for the same month last year.
Monthly milk volumes are trending downwards in line with seasonal supply, as annual production in NI normally hits its lowest levels in September.
At the same time as volumes decline, milk solids are rising and have a greater bearing on the final price paid compared to previous months.
For August, the higher milk solids used in our calculations puts approximately 0.5p/l more on to prices paid when compared to the milk solids in the July league calculations.
Among the other processors, Tirlán/Fivemiletown was the only one to leave its August price unchanged, holding at 46.9p/l.
With a final milk price of 48.2p/l, Tirlán finishes in second, making it the first time in 2022 it has not topped the league.
Dale Farm climbs one spot to third paying 47.68p/l after raising its base by 1p to 47.05p/l. Moving in the opposite direction is Aurivo, which slips two places to finish fourth on 47.6p/l, despite a 0.5p/l increase to a base of 46.5p/l.
Although it paid the lowest base price across all processors, Glanbia Cheese finishes in fifth thanks to its 0.4p/l mozzarella bonus and higher payments on milk solids. Strathroy is at the foot of the table.
Rolling average
Despite finishing in second place for August, Tirlán continues to lead our price analysis over the past 12 months for a farmer producing 750,000 litres annually.
For milk collected on alternate days, Tirlán is out in front with a rolling average price of 40.14p/l. It is the first time this analysis has finished with a rolling price above 40p/l.
Dale Farm remains in second place, just ahead of Aurivo in third.
Moving to daily milk collections, Tirlán leads on 39.84p/l followed by Aurivo in second place and Glanbia Cheese in third.
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