Irish Farmers Warn Autumn Milk Supplies Will Fall Significantly

Noel Murphy, dairy chair of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA), made the warning as processors began announcing July milk prices. He said the combination of lower grass availability and increased costs made a substantial reduction in Irish milk flows this autumn highly likely.

Farmers are using winter feed earlier than usual because of the drought and the lack of grass, according to Murphy. That is increasing expenditure while cows are producing less milk. He described the situation as a “double whammy” in which farmers are feeding more but receiving less output.

Murphy said the price paid for the reduced production was already well below last year’s level. Farmers were examining each cow and calculating individual costs and yields, he said. He called on co-operatives to introduce a “manageable series of lifts in farmer milk price” before the expected tightening of supply.

He also reported tentative signs that spot-market prices had strengthened over the previous month. Murphy said this could continue as the decline in supply became clearer and buyers purchased milk forward. He added that whole-milk powder had risen by almost 3c/L in the latest week in Dutch dairy quotations, while demand for proteins remained strong.

“If milk is to keep flowing this autumn, then milk price needs to improve,” Murphy said. He called for the price returned to farmers to rise immediately “by whatever means possible” and said processors seeking lower milk volumes should pay for them. He added that farmers were experiencing the effects of the drought and would continue to do so for months.

Lakeland Dairies was the first processor to announce a July price. In the Republic of Ireland, it set a base payment of 38.5c/L for milk containing 3.6% butterfat and 3.3% protein. The figure includes a 0.5c/L Sustainability Incentive Payment and is 1c/L higher than the June base price.

For milk supplied in Northern Ireland, Lakeland confirmed a July base price of 30.9p/L, also including the Sustainability Incentive Payment. That represented an increase of 0.8p/L from June.