The recent upward trend at GDT auctions has continued at the latest event, as the price index has jumped by 3.6%.

This follows on from consecutive increases of 3.1% and 1.6% at the previous two events.

Skimmed Milk Powder decreased marginally by 0.9%, while Whole Milk Powder rose by 5.2%. However, Butter Milk Powder jumped by more than one fifth, with an increase of 21.8%.

The Cheddar index also registered an increase of 4.6% during the event, which lasted for close to two hours and 20 minutes.

A total of 548 bidders were registered at the latest event. There were 106 winning bidders over the course of the 15 bidding rounds.

Key Results

  • AMF index up 4.7%, average price US$6,185/MT
  • Butter index up 1.1%, average price US$4,911/MT
  • BMP index up 21.8%, average price US$1,859/MT
  • Ched index up 4.6%, average price US$3,666/MT
  • LAC index up 1.1%, average price US$941/MT
  • RenCas index up 10.4%, average price US$6,775/MT
  • SMP index down 0.9%, average price US$1,982/MT
  • WMP index up 5.2%, average price US$3,233/MT

Source: GDT

Irish milk production

Meanwhile, milk production climbed by 3.9% on dairy farms in the Republic of Ireland in March, compared to the same month last year, the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show.

This was the first monthly increase in milk production reported in 2017; falls of 4.6% and 7.8%, versus 2016 figures, were recorded in January and February respectively.

Domestic milk intake by creameries and pasteurisers was estimated at 617.6m litres for the third month of the year, according to the CSO.

Comparing figures from March of this year to those in the same month last year shows that total milk sold for human consumption increased by 4.7% to 46m litres; butter production was up 1.7% to 20,430t, the CSO added.

Milk production on Irish farms during the first three months of 2017 also increased by 1.1%, compared to the same period in the previous year.

In the first quarter of this year, an estimated 1,040.3m litres of domestic milk were taken in by creameries and pasteurisers. In comparison, this figure stood at 1,029.3m litres for the same period in 2016.