Dale Farm will do everything it can to support our members’ milk price over the coming months through the introduction of a milk production incentive scheme and winter price premium.

The scheme will see farmers receive an extra 2p/litre above base on all milk supplied during October, November and December. In addition, members will receive an extra 4p/litre on all extra milk produced during the period of the winter premium period, comparing output during October, November and December of 2016 with the comparable months of the previous year.

Important factors

Milk throughout has dropped by 4.3% over the past year and this reduction will also be factored into the base volumes used for the production-based price incentive calculation, e.g. If a producer produced 100,000L in October 2015, the base volume used to determine bonus paid for October 2016 will be 95,700L (less 4.3%)

Winter premium for 2016 includes the month of December - in the past only the October and November period was covered.

Production-based price bonus is open-ended

Nick Whelan, Group Chief Executive for Dale Farm said this of the company’s desire for members to increase production:

“Our aim is to maximise the efficiency of our processing plants to help pay a better price to our farmers and to do this we need more milk. I fully recognise that the prices paid to dairy farmers over many months have not been sustainable, which is why we’re incentivising our members. This year’s winter premium scheme has been designed to reflect recent upturns in world markets and reflects our ethos of giving all we can to our members in terms of milk price.”