Glanbia has become the latest processor to announce its milk price for February supplies, revealing a held base price from January.

Glanbia will pay its member milk suppliers 34.42c/L including VAT and bonuses for February creamery milk supplies at 3.6% butterfat and 3.3% protein.

Glanbia Ireland will pay a base milk price for February of 31c/L including VAT for creamery milk at 3.6% fat and 3.3% protein. This is unchanged from the January base price.

Farmer members will also receive a 0.42c/L including VAT payment from Glanbia Co-op on all milk supplied this month as its ‘Share of GI Profit’.

This payment, which will be adjusted each month to reflect the constituents of milk supplied, will be paid on all milk supplied by co-op members in 2020.

An Early Calving Bonus (ECB) of 3c/L including VAT will be paid to creamery suppliers for February milk. The ECB replaces the previous Seasonality Scheme.

The Glanbia Ireland base price, Glanbia Co-op Share of GI Profit payment and Early Calving Bonus will be adjusted to reflect the actual constituents of milk delivered by suppliers.

Glanbia Ireland liquid milk suppliers who deliver high-quality milk year round receive a bonus of 7.4c/L including VAT on their contracted liquid milk volumes for the six months from October to March.

Participants in the Autumn Calving Scheme (ACS) will be paid 8.5c/L including VAT on their contracted November to February volumes.

Liquid milk contract holders and ACS participants are not eligible for the ECB.

Commenting, Glanbia chairman Martin Keane said: “The global spread of coronavirus is affecting dairy supply chains and ultimately trade.

Our immediate priorities are to ensure the safety of our people and to assist our farmer suppliers and customers to work through the challenges.

“We urge everyone to follow the official advice from the HSE [Health and Safety Executive] and other appropriate authorities,” Keane said.

Response to coronavirus outbreak

A number of weeks ago, Glanbia Ireland initiated its Business Continuity Planning (BCP) process to deal with the challenges arising from the current outbreak of coronavirus (Covid-19). This includes contingency plans for safe deliveries to, and collections from, any farm impacted by the outbreak.