Tirlán has confirmed today (Wednesday, February 7) that €6 million will be paid to 4,700 farmer shareholders as part of the 2023 Trading Bonus Scheme.

Over €3.1 million will be paid out in February to milk supplier members who qualified for the trading bonus.

Under the scheme, over €300,000 will issue to drystock farmer members through the feed bonuses.

A payment of €1.3m is currently being paid to grain suppliers, with a further €1.1 million to issue in the summer months.

The board of Tirlán has approved that members will again have an opportunity to participate in a 2024 Trading Bonus Scheme.

Tirlán 2024 bonus

A trading bonus of 0.25c/Lwill be paid on all milk from suppliers that spend 8c/L or more with Tirlán in 2024.

For grain grower members and non-shareholders, a trading bonus of up to €10 per tonne of grain supplied is again available for the 2024 harvest for those trading over €60 per tonne.

The grain bonus was also extended to non-shareholders for the 2023 scheme and this will continue for 2024.

Beef and sheep customers of Tirlán that are co-op members will also qualify for a feed bonus on their tonnes purchased this year.

The 2024 feed trading bonus will be €10 per tonne of beef, dairy and sheep feed products purchased from Tirlán. It will be €3 per tonne for straights. 

To further incentivise the switch to urea from other fertilisers, Tirlán has announced that using protected urea now counts as “double” under the Trading Bonus Scheme.

For every €1 spent on protected urea, it will now count as €2 towards the calculation of the trading bonus for milk and grain.

Chairperson of Tirlán, John Murphy said: “We have been working hard on the next phase of the Trading Bonus Scheme and we hope to bring news of exciting work done in this regard to members in the second half of this year.”

All qualifying 2024 purchases made from Tirlán are included in the calculation. Similar to previous years, purchases made through purchasing groups count at 50% for 2024.

At the end of 2024, the total spend will be divided by the total litres of milk delivered to generate a cent per litre input spend for each member. The applicable trading bonus will be paid in February 2025.