LacPatrick Dairies has announced its decision to hold its milk price for its November supplies following a meeting of the co-op’s board earlier today (Tuesday, December 18).

Suppliers in the Republic of Ireland will receive a price of 31c/L including VAT for milk supplied in November; the same price paid for October supplies.

Suppliers in Northern Ireland will receive a price of 26.5p/L for milk supplied in November, also the same as the price paid for October supplies.

However, farmers in Northern Ireland will also receive an additional 2p/L winter bonus and suppliers in the Republic of Ireland will receive a conditional winter bonus of 1.5c/L.

GDT auction

In other dairy market news, the latest Global Dairy Trade (GDT) auction – and final event of 2018 – has seen the GDT index lift slightly for a second consecutive rise.

Today’s auction – event 226 – saw the index rise by 1.7% to end the year with a lift, following on from seven index drops on the bounce prior to December’s first auction two weeks ago.

Lasting two minutes over the two-hour mark, the event saw 184 bidders take part across 13 rounds with 143 winning bids.

A total of 36,181MT of product was sold on the day.

The most dramatic mover in index on the day was butter, which recorded a 4.9% increase in price.

This was followed by Anhydrous Milk Fat (AMF), which saw a 4% rise at the event.

Butter Milk Powder (BMP) was not offered at today’s event, while the Sweet Milk Powder (SWP) was once again not available.