Milk Price Tracker: No drastic changes in prices paid for February

The latest Milk Price Tracker – brought to you by Agriland and the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) – details milk prices from the most significant Irish dairy co-ops for the month of February.

The co-ops within the Milk Price Tracker are ranked from highest to lowest price for base milk price only.

It is important to note that the cent-per-litre (c/L) milk prices shown in the table below are calculated using the widely accepted milk pricing system.

The conversion factor used is 1.03, meaning 1L of milk corresponds to 1.03kg of milk.

It is Agriland and ICMSA policy not to include support payments, bonuses, or additional payments in the calculation of the base milk price.

February has seen milk price remain the same for most cooperatives with the majority of co-operatives maintaining their price from January supplies.

The majority of co-operatives remain above the 50c/L base price threshold with the minority still lagging behind with no increase in base milk price.

Two co-operatives decreased their base milk price for February supplies, with the rest of the cooperative happy to hold its price.

Kerry Dairy Ireland dropped from the top spot in January's milk price tracker to fifth in the table this month after dropping its base milk price by 2.00c/L in February, but have added a 0.95c/L unconditional top-up payment for February supplies.

Lakeland Dairies started off the year, five from the bottom but as its base milk price dropped by 1.00c/L in February, the co-operative now sits bottom of the tracker.

The milk prices in the table are those quoted by co-ops for the month of February in 2025.

The four west Cork co-operatives sit at the top of the milk price tracker with Lisavaird leading the way with a base price of 51.41c/L.

Tirlan sit sixth in the milk price tracker but actually have the highest maximum attainable price of 56.08c/L, thanks to their hefty 5.7c/L seasonality bonus for February supplies.

Further details of bonuses and penalties for the Milk Price Tracker can be found by clicking here.

With regard to the Milk Price Tracker above, please see the following explanatory notes  (all bonus and penalty payments are based on manufacturing milk).

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Unconditional bonuses

  • Arrabawn pays a 2.85c/L (excl. VAT) Winter bonus payment, which applies to all milk volumes supplied during January that meet quality criteria;
  • Aurivo pays a 3c/L (excl. VAT) early calving bonus on all milk supplied in February;
  • Aurivo pays a 0.45c/L (incl. VAT) on all milk supplied in 2024 (this is not included in the table above);
  • Dairygold pays a 5c/L (excl. VAT) early calving bonus for February;
  • Kerry Dairy Ireland pays a base top up of 0.95c/L (excl. VAT);
  • Lakeland pays a 1.9c/L (excl. VAT) early calving bonus on all milk supplied in February.
  • North Cork pays a milk supplementary payment of 1.9c/L (excl. VAT) on February supplies;
  • Tirlán pays an unconditioned seasonality bonus of 5.7c/L (excl. VAT) for milk supplied in February that meets quality criteria.

Conditional bonuses

  • Arrabawn pays a 0.4c/L (excl. VAT) bonus on all milk with a somatic cell count (SCC) less than 200,000 cells/ml;
  • Arrabawn pays a 0.47c/L (excl. VAT) sustainability bonus;
  • Aurivo is paying a 0.5c/L (excl. VAT) future milk sustainability bonus;
  • Aurivo has a milk storage bonus which is available to suppliers with a minimum annual supply of 160,000L that have enough refrigerated storage capacity to cover seven milkings at peak production. The storage bonus of 0.44c/L was taken from the ‘C’ from September 2021. ‘C’ is 3.813;
  • Aurivo has a 0.21c/L (excl. VAT) protein bonus available for every 0.05% protein achieved, above the co-op average protein %, in an individual month;
  • Carbery Group pays a bonus of 0.5c/L (excl. VAT) from March to October and a 0.88c/L (excl. VAT) bonus from November to February to suppliers who achieve an SCC of less than 200,000 cells/ml;
  • In September 2022, Carbery began to pay a sustainability bonus of 0.5c/L to farmers who have committed to Carbery’s futureproof programme. This is 1c/L for 2025 and is paid on all milk supplied by farmers who have signed a sustainability pledge and complete three actions. This is paid in January each year;
  • Dairygold has a maximum bonus attainable by farmers who achieve the minimum requirements for six criteria (total bacteria count (TBC); thermoduric; sediment; SCC; lactose and inhibitors). This cumulatively amounts to 0.4c/L (excl. VAT);
  • Dairygold has a 1.06c/L grassroots sustainability bonus payment for water quality, protected urea, soil health, education, milk recording, herd health and Sustainable Dairy Assurance Scheme (SDAS);
  • Kerry Dairy Ireland pays 0.4c/L (excl. VAT) bonus on all milk with an SCC less than 200,000 cells/ml and 0.1c/L (excl. VAT) for SDAS;
  • Lakeland is paying a 0.47c/L (excl. VAT) milk sustainability bonus;
  • Lakeland pays a 5c/L seasonality bonus for all milk supplied in February if 50% of February milk was supplied in May;
  • North Cork pays a 0.2c/L (excl. VAT) bonus on all milk with an SCC of less than 200,000 cells/ml;
  • North Cork pays a 0.135c/L (excl. VAT) bonus if four milk recordings are carried out in the year. It will be paid the following January;
  • Strathroy pays a 0.25c/L (excl. VAT) bonus on all milk with an SCC of less than 200,000 cells/ml;
  • Strathroy also pays a 0.25c/L (excl. VAT) bonus on all milk with a TBC of less than 10,000 cells/ml;
  • Strathroy pays a 0.5c/L (excl. VAT) sustainability bonus, this was introduced in January 2024;
  • Tirlán is paying a sustainability action payment of 0.47c/L (excl. VAT) for February.

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