For the third month in a row, Glanbia Ireland/Fivemiletown tops the NI Milk League, with a price of 30.31p/l paid for milk collected on alternate days during June.

Since the outset of the year, Glanbia Ireland has dominated the milk league, with March being the only month it didn’t take top spot. During the 18 months since January 2020, Glanbia Ireland has led the milk league on 14 occasions.

June was the first month this year where all processors decided to leave prices unchanged.

This meant Glanbia Ireland remained on a starting price of 29.5p/l, just 0.3p/l short of the highest base price, which was paid by Dale Farm.

Despite paying a higher base price, Dale Farm finishes behind Glanbia Ireland, with transport charges again a key factor causing Dale Farm to drop into third place.

Milk quality

The milk league is based on a 650,000l producer with a supply profile reflecting the NI average.

Monthly prices are calculated using the official statistics published by DAERA for the same month in the previous year.

For June, milk quality is set at 3.91% butterfat, 3.25% protein, 4.74% lactose, 24 TBC and 204 SCC. The protein average is down slightly on those used for May (3.29%), while both TBC and SCC are higher.

Combined, those changes to milk quality have brought some minor positional changes this month, despite base prices holding steady.

Chasing pack

Behind Glanbia and Dale Farm, Aurivo holds on to fourth place for the second month in a row, paying 30.02p/l. The west of Ireland-based co-op started on an unchanged base price of 29.5p/l for June.

However, Glanbia Cheese climbs one place to finish fifth, with its position helped by its 0.4p/l mozzarella bonus. Lakeland Dairies slides three places to sixth, with Strathroy in seventh.

12 month rolling average

Unsurprisingly, given its dominance of the monthly league table this year, Glanbia Ireland/Fivemiletown continues to lead the 12 month rolling average league table for milk collected on both alternate days and daily.

On alternate day collection, Glanbia Ireland leads with an average of 29.52p/l and has now topped this table for 13 consecutive months.

Lakeland Dairies remains in third on 29.48p/l, with Glanbia Cheese staying in fourth. All positions are unchanged from last month.

For daily collection, Glanbia Ireland leads on 29.27p/l, with Glanbia Cheese remaining the closest challenger.

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