The Ornua equivalent milk price has lifted by 1.3c/l for October.

On Wednesday, Ornua released the index result at 125.6 (36 c/l excluding VAT or 38c/l including VAT).

This is up from 121.8 (34.7c/l excluding VAT) the previous month.

In addition, the Ornua value payment payable to members in the month is €7.95m, which equated to 8.1% of gross purchases in the month (the year to date figure is 6.6%).

This adds another 3.37c/l on to the base price, bringing the all-in comparable price to 39.4c/l excluding VAT for October.

Milk league

For comparison, the September monthly milk league showed an average 34.7c/l base price, leaving a difference of 4.7c/l before the co-ops set October milk price next week.

The GDT Index also bounced this week, up 4.3%. In this auction, whole milk powder was up 2.7% and skim milk powder was up 6.6%. The significance is New Zealand is now at peak milk supply.

Strathroy restrictions

Strathroy Dairies in Northern Ireland has issued a letter to suppliers in the Republic in follow-up to a June letter alerting suppliers of a pending restriction on processing capacity and hence restrictions on volume growth by suppliers in the Republic.

In the note to suppliers, it says: “We cannot handle further volume increases in peak months.” It goes on to detail a supply volume for March, April, May and June.

The letter states milk price on the allocated volumes will be full base price plus solids and any quality bonuses, but, any volumes over this will be paid on a flat price and the letter states “we cannot forecast what this price may be”.