Dale Farm CEO Nick Whelan has indicated that farmgate milk prices in Northern Ireland may start to strengthen during the fourth quarter of this year.
“Milk production levels are starting to fall across many of the world’s most important dairying regions,” he said.
“Markets respond to supply-demand factors. But there are indications that milk prices could remain at reasonable levels, once we get into 2024.
“Labour availability has become a critical factor in the milk production equation right around the world. Meanwhile, the demand for milk and dairy products continues to grow.”
Sustainability
Dale Farm has further clarified how the co-operative will work to deliver significantly enhanced sustainability levels across its farm supply base.
“Later in the summer we will be engaging with our members on the road map to meeting the required climate change targets, set out in Northern Ireland’s climate change legislation,” Whelan commented.
According to Dale Farm’s CEO, these targets will be assessed by an outside body, Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), for approval.
SBTi is a partnership involving the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the United Nations’ Global Compact, World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
SBTi will act to ensure that the targets and improvements are externally audited and credible.
“We will be setting a near-term target of a 31% reduction in the greenhouse gas footprint of our milk by 2030,” Whelan added.
“This is fully in line with climate change legislation.
“We are in the process of developing our sustainability programme, to achieve the necessary steps to satisfy the requirements needed for the SBTi targets.
“As we embark on this process there will be a financial incentive included in the base price to reflect the importance of meeting these climate change targets.
“Dale Farm field staff will be on hand to help our farmers navigate their way through this process.
“The focus will be on the development of efficient farming practices: Efficient farms are low-carbon farms.”
The Dale Farm sustainability programme will evolve as progress is made towards the attainment of government’s targets.
“Given the importance of this topic in today’s society, we will organise local meetings in each district with our farmers to discuss, in detail, our plans to achieve this,” Whelan further explained.
“We are conscious our farmers need to hear the finer details from the Dale Farm team at the proposed meetings firstly.”