Milk Price Watch — Irish Co-op Milk Prices Compared

Milk Price Watch — Co-op Prices Compared

August 2026 supplies · Updated monthly as co-ops announce · Last checked 19 September 2026

Every month the co-ops announce a milk price, and every co-op announces it a different way. One quotes with VAT, one without. One buries the bonuses in the headline number, another strips them out. One quotes at Irish standard constituents, another leads with the EU standard figure that reads four cent higher for the same litre. The result: a farmer can't put two headline numbers side by side and know who actually pays more. That suits everyone except the farmer. This page puts them on one table, like with like, and marks the gaps plainly.

August 2026 — quoted milk price, standard constituents

All figures are the co-op's quoted price at Irish standard constituents (3.3% protein, 3.6% butterfat), including VAT, cent per litre. "Bonuses in" means quality/sustainability payments are inside the headline figure. July is kept alongside so you can see the move. A † marks a July figure back-calculated from the co-op's own announced increase rather than taken from a July announcement in the same words — the move itself is what the co-op stated.

Co-op	August 2026	July 2026	Move	Bonuses in?	Note
Kinisla (was Kerry Dairy Ireland)	39.60 c/L	39.10 c/L †	+0.50	Yes	Announced 16 Sept: “39.6c/L, including VAT, and quality and sustainability bonuses”, up 0.5c/L on July. Average return on the co-op’s average August solids: 45.21c/L incl VAT. Kinisla does not state a constituents basis in its announcement — the others on this table do.
Lakeland Dairies	39.10 c/L	38.50 c/L †	+0.60	Yes	Announced 10 Sept: 39.1c/L at 3.6% butterfat and 3.3% protein, including VAT and the 0.5c/L Sustainability Incentive Payment, up 0.6c/L. Average payout 44.7c/L. Its Northern Ireland base is 31.4p/L (+0.5p) — a different table entirely, never quote the two as one.
Tirlán	39.08 c/L	39.08 c/L	Held	Yes	Confirmed 18 Sept: 39.08c/L incl VAT and the 0.5c/L Sustainability Action Payment, held level on July. A temporary 1c/L weather support payment sits on top of this and is not inside the headline figure. Average on delivered solids: 46.5c/L incl VAT. The same day Tirlán set a floor of 40.08c/L for September, October, November and December supplies, subject to unforeseen events.
Dairygold	39.00 c/L	38.50 c/L †	+0.50	Yes	Confirmed 17 Sept: 39c/L incl VAT at 3.3% protein and 3.6% butterfat, including sustainability and quality payments, up 0.5c/L. The board says it reviews milk price monthly.
Carbery (Bandon, Barryroe, Drinagh, Lisavaird)	Awaiting verified figure	Not published on this basis	—	—	No August announcement on the public record as of 19 Sept. For scale only: the Agriland/ICMSA tracker put the four west Cork co-ops on a July base of 40.01c/L excluding VAT, base price only — a different basis to this column and not comparable with it, but well clear of the field on the tracker’s own table.
Aurivo	Awaiting verified figure	Not published on this basis	—	—	No August announcement on the public record as of 19 Sept. Tracker July base, for scale only: 38.23c/L excluding VAT, base price only.
ArraTipp (was Arrabawn + Tipperary Co-op)	Awaiting verified figure	Not published on this basis	—	—	No August announcement on the public record as of 19 Sept. The tracker recorded a 0.40c/L rise on its July base but published no figure for it.
North Cork Creameries	Awaiting verified figure	Not published on this basis	—	—	No August announcement on the public record as of 19 Sept. The tracker recorded a 0.50c/L rise on its July base but published no figure for it.

Swipe the table sideways to see every column.

⚠ A gap in this table is a gap in what the co-op has put on the public record in a comparable form — not a guess filled in to make the table look complete. Four of the eight had not put an August price on the record by 19 September. The Agriland/ICMSA tracker does carry base prices for some of them, but that tracker is base price only and excludes VAT, so those figures sit in the notes, not in the column. Converting one basis into the other to fill a cell would be the exact trick this page exists to call out. When a verified figure lands on this basis, it goes in.

The same four have announced, and the trade has firmed: three moved up between half a cent and 0.6c, and Tirlán held. Kinisla tops the announced group at 39.60c, then Lakeland 39.10c, Tirlán 39.08c and Dairygold 39.00c — the four of them inside 0.6 of a cent of each other. Read that spread before anyone tells you a co-op is “well ahead” this month. The money that actually separates them is sitting outside the headline: Tirlán’s separate 1c/L weather support, and every co-op’s average on delivered solids running 5–7c above its own quoted price in peak season. Carbery, which led the tracker’s July table by a distance, had not announced August when we last checked.

"Who's top?" depends on which table you're reading

This is the part that causes most of the arguments in the yard, so it is worth setting out plainly. There is no single milk league. There are at least three, they measure different things, and a co-op can lead one while trailing another in the same week.

Table	What it measures	Who leads
Monthly quoted price August 2026 supplies	The base price announced for a single month, cent per litre at a stated standard	Of those that have announced, Kinisla 39.60c, then Lakeland 39.10c, Tirlán 39.08c, Dairygold 39.00c. Carbery had not announced.
Cumulative league May supplies, published 1 July 2026 — the most recent one we have verified	Year-to-date money on a standard supply — the running total, not one month	The four west Cork co-ops that supply the Carbery group, in division one on their own. Behind them Dairygold and Tirlán were neck and neck, Dairygold ahead by €33 year-to-date after Tirlán applied a retrospective increase in the May cheque. A newer league may have been published since; this one is dated rather than carried forward as current.
Northern Ireland league	A separate table entirely, different processors and different basis	Tirlán tops it. This is not the Republic table and the two should never be quoted as one.

Swipe the table sideways to see every column.

So all of the following can be true in the same week: west Cork is top, Dairygold is ahead of Tirlán, Kinisla is top, and Tirlán is top. It depends entirely on whether you are being shown one month's quote, the year to date, or the wrong jurisdiction. A €33 gap year-to-date and a 0.08c gap in a single month are both real and neither is a league win.

⚠ When somebody quotes you a league position, ask three questions before you take it in: which month, cumulative or single-month, and which side of the border. Most of the disagreement disappears once those are answered.

How to read a milk price — the four tricks in every headline number

1. Constituents. Milk is paid on solids — protein and butterfat — not on water. The Irish standard quote assumes 3.3% protein and 3.6% butterfat. The EU standard assumes 3.4% and 4.2%. Same litre of milk, but the EU-standard number reads roughly 4c/L higher. Dairygold’s May 2026 quote was 37.5c at Irish standard and 41.2c at EU standard — identical money. If one co-op leads with the EU figure and another leads with the Irish figure, the comparison is fiction until you put them on the same basis.

2. VAT. Most co-op announcements include flat-rate VAT; the Agriland/ICMSA tracker strips it out. A VAT-inclusive number always beats a VAT-exclusive one on paper. Check before comparing.

3. Bonuses. Somatic cell count bonuses, sustainability payments, stability funds, retrospective top-ups — some co-ops fold them into the headline, some list them separately, and not every farmer qualifies for every one. A headline that includes a conditional bonus you don't get is not your price.

4. Your solids. The quoted price is for standard milk. Your actual cheque reflects your herd's protein and fat. That’s why Tirlán’s quoted 39.08c for August became an actual average of 46.5c paid on delivered constituents, Kinisla’s quoted 39.60c became 45.21c, and Lakeland’s quoted 39.10c became an average payout of 44.7c — solids run well above standard in peak season. Two farmers supplying the same co-op can be 4c/L apart on the same month, legitimately.

None of this is illegal and none of it is new. But it means the only honest comparison is base price, same constituents, same VAT treatment, bonuses declared — which is what this page does, and what we'll keep doing every month. The same rule we apply to beef quotes applies here: when farmers can see the whole board, the game changes.

Sources

August 2026 supplies
Agriland — Lakeland Dairies confirms August milk price (10 September 2026): 39.1c/L ROI incl VAT at 3.6% butterfat / 3.3% protein incl the 0.5c/L Sustainability Incentive Payment, up 0.6c/L; average payout 44.7c/L; NI base 31.4p/L.
Agriland — Kinisla confirms milk price for August supplies (16 September 2026): 39.6c/L incl VAT and quality and sustainability bonuses, up 0.5c/L; average return on August solids 45.21c/L.
Agriland — Dairygold confirms August milk price (17 September 2026): 39c/L incl VAT at 3.3% protein / 3.6% butterfat incl sustainability and quality payments, up 0.5c/L.
Agriland — Tirlán announces milk price ‘floor’ for last 4 months of 2026 (18 September 2026): confirms August at 39.08c/L incl VAT and the 0.5c/L Sustainability Action Payment, plus a temporary 1c/L weather support payment; average on delivered solids 46.5c/L; sets a 40.08c/L floor for September–December supplies.

July 2026 supplies (retained for the month-on-month move)
Tirlán FarmLife — Tirlán announces July milk price of 39.08cpl and €15 million support package.
Irish Farmers Journal — Co-ops announce July milk prices and drought support (19 August 2026): July figures quoted ex-VAT — Tirlán base 35.96c plus 0.96c weather support and 0.48c sustainability, Dairygold 36.84c, Kinisla 37.42c.
Agriland/ICMSA Milk Price Tracker — July supplies (10 September 2026): base price only, excluding VAT and support payments. Carbery’s four west Cork co-ops 40.01c, Aurivo 38.23c, Kinisla 37.57c, Centenary 37.59c, Tirlán 37.59c, Dairygold 37.04c; ArraTipp +0.40c and North Cork +0.50c with no figure published. Average base 38.51c.

June 2026 supplies (archive)
Irish Examiner — Processors confirm June milk prices (17 July 2026): Lakeland, Kinisla, Tirlán and Dairygold June figures, constituents and bonus detail.
Agriland — Kinisla confirms milk price for June supplies (20 July 2026).
Agriland — Lakeland announces June milk price and ‘market support’ payment (17 July 2026).
Irish Farmers Journal — Tirlán holds June milk price as part of three-month set rate (17 July 2026).
Irish Examiner — Milk prices for May confirmed by Co-ops (22 June 2026): Dairygold, Kinisla, Carbery, Tirlán May figures and constituents.

Milk Price Watch is compiled by IrelandCattlePrice.com from co-op announcements and published trade reports. Prices are for general guidance — always confirm with your co-op. Spot an error or have a verified figure we're missing? Tell us — that's how the gaps close.