The four west Cork Co-ops processing milk under the Carbery banner have once again taken the top four positions in the Irish Farmers Journal/KPMG annual milk price review.

Dairygold and Glanbia come in after the four west Cork co-ops.

The gap between the highest paying and between top and bottom is now €202 per cow, which equates to over €20,000 of an income difference for a 100-cow herd.

Barryroe paid a milk price of 36.95 c/l, while Aurivo paid a milk price of 32.91 c/l in 2018. That’s almost 4c/l of a difference between the co-ops.

The average milk price paid is down only slightly to 34.63c/litre from 35.86c/l in 2017.

At farm level, higher costs in 2018 due to snow, drought and output loss meant profits at farm level were much lower last year, despite the relatively good milk price.