The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has said that milk price cuts announced by processors this month have “effectively eliminated” the premium paid to liquid milk producers.
Over the past week, milk processors around the country have confirmed base milk price reductions of between 4-7c/L.
The processors have blamed a significant drop in global dairy market prices from the record highs during 2022.
This is due to stronger global milk supply volumes and the impact of inflation on consumer demand.
Price cuts
However, these announcements will take a serious toll on farmers producing liquid milk, according to IFA Liquid Milk Committee chair, Keith O’Boyle.
“Our autumn calvers are at peak milk production in January, so milk price cuts of this magnitude have a profound impact on our profitability and effectively wipe out our premium.
“We simply cannot afford to take these kinds of hits to our profit margins. Without a liquid milk premium, the supply of daily fresh milk for supermarket shelves will become unsustainable,” he said.
O’Boyle said that input costs for dairy farmers producing fresh milk over the winter months have remained at “an all-time high”.
He said that these farmers have a higher dependence on concentrate feed which is currently costing over €500/tonne.
“While milk processors continue to encourage spring milk producers to produce more milk early in the year by offering ‘seasonal’ or ‘early lactation’ bonuses, these are not available to liquid milk producers.
“These bonuses must be paid to liquid milk producers with immediate effect for all the milk we produce in January, February and March.
“Liquid milk processors cannot expect us to take cuts of 7c/L,” the IFA chair said.