Tirlán announces December milk price it's paying to its Tipperary farmer suppliers

Tirlán has announced it will pay a total of 56.08 cent per litre (cpl) (including VAT) for December creamery milk supplies at 3.6% butterfat and 3.3% protein.

The price includes a Seasonality Payment of 5 cpl (including VAT) that will be paid on all creamery milk volumes supplied in December that meet quality criteria.

The December milk price consists of the following:

  *   Base milk price of 50.58 cpl (including VAT), unchanged from November;
  *   A Seasonality Payment of 5.0 cpl (including VAT) which applies to all creamery milk volumes supplied during December that meet quality criteria. This payment also applies to non-contracted volumes from our Autumn calving and Liquid Milk scheme members;
  *   Sustainability Action Payment of 0.5 cpl (including VAT) to all qualifying suppliers. Suppliers are asked to register their sustainability actions on the Tirlán FarmLife website before 24 January to secure the 0.5cpl for 2025.

The base price and Sustainability Action Payment will be adjusted to reflect the actual constituents of milk delivered by suppliers.

The actual average price paid by Tirlán for December creamery milk, based on delivered constituents, will be 69.7 cpl (including VAT).

Tirlán Chairperson John Murphy said: "We are pleased to be in a position to pay a strong milk price this month, with all quality milk supplied in December qualifying for either Liquid Premium, Autumn Calving or Unconditional Seasonality payments. This rewards farmers who are committed to supply quality milk over the higher cost winter months.

"Dairy markets ended the year on a solid footing and global dairy market fundamentals remain mostly balanced at the start of 2025. As always, there are a number of factors to be closely monitored, including the unfortunate case of Foot and Mouth Disease in Germany. The Board will continue to monitor the dairy market on a monthly basis."

For further details on the market situation, John Murphy encouraged Tirlán milk suppliers to attend a 2025 Outlook Webinar taking place on Wednesday 22 January at 7.30pm.

Seasonality payments

Unconditional seasonality bonus payments apply over the winter months of December, January and February on all non-contracted milk volumes that meet quality criteria. The payment rates for qualified milk volumes are 5 cpl for December, 7 cpl for January and 5 cpl for February.

The Tirlán Board has confirmed that the unconditional Seasonality Bonus Payments will remain unchanged for next winter: 5 cpl in December 2025; 7 cpl in January 2026 and 5 cpl in February 2026.

Unconditional Seasonality Bonus payments will be adjusted to reflect the actual constituents of the milk delivered.