Most co-ops kept milk price the same for May, with the exception of some of the bigger players that added around 6.6c/kg MS to their May price. Notably, Tirlán went one step further and added the increase to the March and April milk price too. This was paid in the May cheque and is therefore added to the cumulative column in the table.

The increase doesn’t change Tirlán’s position in the cumulative ranking, but it does narrow the gap between it and Dairygold. Last month there was a €475 of a difference, but after May that’s back to just €33 in the cumulative year-to-date payment.

To be fair to both, the battle for fifth and sixth place in the league is effectively the battle for second and third place, as the four west Cork co-ops pay more or less the same price, as determined by Carbery.

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The other big point to note is that the differences are exceptionally small between most of the co-ops in division two and three of the league. We have North Cork and Arratipp in division three for this month, but others could have joined them. These two co-ops paid the lowest price for May and have paid the lowest price all year, albeit Arratipp is a good bit ahead of North Cork in terms of the cumulative payment. Lakeland is just ahead of Arratipp, having increased its price for May. Kinisla is also now ahead of Aurivo at the top of division two, after increasing its price by 6.7c/kg MS for May.

The milk price situation is totally changed to this time last year. On average, the May milk payment, typically the biggest payment of the year, is back over €6,340 for the typical farmer in 2026 compared to May 2025. That’s an average drop of 17%, but some co-ops have pulled back milk price more than others.

Aurivo and Arratipp May payments are back 19% on this time last year, while Lakeland and Kinisla are back over 18%. In contrast, the west Cork co-ops are back just over 14% in milk price. The west Corks are clear that they are paying around 20c/kg MS out of their reserve fund to support current milk price.

Aurivo is paying around 13c/kg MS from its reserve fund, so if it didn’t have this to pay, the situation for Aurivo suppliers would be worse. Dairy markets are struggling and product mix, particularly high quality protein is becoming more and more important for co-ops to make money. With traders going on holidays for July and August, expect no big change in prices until at least autumn.