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 January.

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.

The start of 2025 has seen milk price level off for most cooperatives with the majority of cooperatives maintaining their price from December supplies.

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

Kerry Dairy Ireland have started off the new year on top of the milk price tracker with an increase of 3c/L on their base milk price from December.

The only other cooperative to increase their base milk price in January was Boherbue with a slight increase of 0.15c/L.

All the other cooperatives held their milk price for the month of January.

The west Cork co-ops are just behind Kerry Dairy Ireland as Lisavaird held its milk price of 51.41c/L, Drinagh at 51.40c/L, and Bandon and Barryroe both at 51.23c/L.

Tirlán is just behind the west Cork co-ops with a strong base price of 50.58c/L to start off 2025 accompanied with a decent seasonality bonus.

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

Dairygold are down at the bottom of the table in terms of base milk price, but actually have the second highest maximum attainable price after Tirlán thanks to their early calving bonus for January.

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).

Unconditional bonuses:

Arrabawn pays a 3.8c/L (excl. VAT) winter bonus payment, which applies to all milk volumes supplied during January that meet quality criteria;
Aurivo is paying a 3.8c/L (excl. VAT) early calving bonus on all milk supplied in January;
Dairygold is paying a 7c/L (excl. VAT) early calving bonus for January;
Kerry Dairy Ireland have a base top up of 2.85c/L (excl. VAT) which is included in the A + B prices;
Lakeland Dairies pays a 0.95c/L (excl. VAT) early calving bonus on all milk supplied in January;
North Cork pays a milk supplementary payment of 1.9c/L (excl. VAT) on January supplies;
Tipperary pays a 2.85c/L (excl. VAT) unconditioned winter bonus for January milk;
Tirlán pays an unconditioned seasonality bonus of 6.66c/L (excl. VAT) for milk supplied in January 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 a 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 2024 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 January if 45% of January 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;
Tipperary pays a bonus of 0.25c/L (excl. VAT) on all milk with an SCC less than 250,000 cells/ml;
Tirlán is paying a sustainability action payment of 0.47c/L (excl. VAT) for January.