September 2015 Newsletter

Milk Price & Supply

The milk price for the month of August is the same as last month – 29.00 cents per litre (131.84 cents per gallon) at 3.60% butterfat and 3.30% protein, including a bonus of 0.5 cents per litre for a Summer Somatic Cell Count of less than 200,000, an SDAS bonus of 0.15 cents per litre, milk price support of 0.14 cents per litre and including VAT at 5.2%.

The average price paid for the month based on the average butterfat of 4.09% and protein of 3.58%, including SCC, SDAS bonuses and VAT is 32.39 cents per litre.

The milk supply for the month of August was 17,893,580 litres (4,896,329 gallons). This represents an increase of approx 7.8% on supply compared to August 2014.

Super Levy 2014/15

The Society has received its final assessment of Super Levy liability based on deliveries for the 2014/2015 milk quota year. The Society was 6,989,340 litres over quota after butterfat adjustment. We received 239,266 litres of national flexi milk leaving a net over quota excess of 6,750,074 litres. The rate of Super Levy is 28.6565 cents/litre. Therefore there is a Super Levy liability of €1,934,335. All flexi-milk available to the Society has now been distributed, Category 1 suppliers have been allocated 15,362 litres of flexi milk and Category 2 suppliers have been allocated 12,629 litres of flexi milk.

SDAS Update

Total SDAS bonus paid out to all certified suppliers for August milk deliveries comes to over €15,000.

Over 85% of all suppliers have now signed up to the Sustainable Dairy Assurance Scheme (SDAS).The Society encourages anyone that has not yet signed up to SDAS to do so at their earliest convenience.

Drinagh are aiming to have all their suppliers audited and certified before the end of this year. With this target in mind, could any suppliers that have not yet had their audit consider doing so. Any supplier that is going for their first audit is required to have a minimum of 3 months animal remedy records. Anyone requiring any more information about having their SDAS audit please contact Tim Regan @ 028 30800.

Reseeding Demo

Knowledge Transfer Programme Discussion Groups

The Department of Agriculture has launched a new Discussion Group Programme for Dairy farmers known as the Knowledge Transfer Programme.

These groups will build on the discussion group model and will focus on the key issues of profitability, herd health and breeding. Each participant in conjunction with their advisor will draw up a 5 year farm improvement plan.

These groups will be in place for 3 years. Each participant will be required to attend 5 meetings per year in order to receive €750 payment per annum reimbursement.

The Society will run and facilitate as many of their suppliers as possible who wish to become part of a discussion group.

Anyone interested in becoming a member of a discussion group please contact Tim Regan @ 028 30800.

Mastitis Control Programme

All purchases of intramammary tubes-both milking cow and dry cow products are by veterinary prescription only. The regulations allow milk processing Co-Ops, who operate an approved Mastitis Control Programme, to provide veterinary prescriptions for all suppliers who sign up to this programme. Drinagh Co-Op operates an approved mastitis control programme that allows for the issuance of veterinary prescriptions. The script supplied will be valid for up to 12 months.

Included in this months statement is a Mastitis Control Programme Contract for anybody who wishes to join the programme or renew their contract.

This years contract also contains information on the 7 steps of a good Mastitis Control Programme which should be retained by the farmer. If you wish to join the programme, fully complete and sign the Mastitis Control Programme Contract and return the completed contract only to the Central Office.

A copy of the contract, signed by the vet and a representative of the Co-Op will be returned to you for your own records with the prescription in due course.

Trichloromethane (TCM)

Currently there are a number of quite strict export regulations in place for TCM levels in dairy products.

The involvement of excess chlorine/chlorine containing detergent in the cleaning procedure of the milking system or bulk tank can result in a TCM (chloroform) residue in milk.

This cleaning can have a negative effect on dairy products manufactured from milk and can affect their export volume and price. Therefore cleaning and disinfection of the milking system must be carried out while ensuring the absence of TCM residue in milk.

In order to ensure Irish Dairy Products are at the forefront of the dairy market a TCM level of 0.0015 mg/kg or less is now necessary.

Minimising TCM Levels

• Sufficient pre-rinsing is necessary to remove all traces of milk, such that milk will not interact with the active chlorine in the cleaning and disinfection solvent, thus minimising TCM formation.
• Ensure only the recommended level of chlorine is to be used. All cleaning solvents should be purchased from reputable suppliers.
• Storage between and re-use of solvents over a number of milkings should not occur.
• Sufficient post-rinsing is necessary to remove all traces of the cleaning and disinfection solvent.

Cleaning Procedure

• Any remaining milk in the plant must be drained from milk tubes and pipelines.
• Plant must then be rinsed with fresh water until the rinse water runs clear.
• The main wash must use a reputable detergent at the correct temperature and concentration for the recommended time period.
• The second rinsing must flush the system with fresh water until all remaining traces of detergent have disappeared. Again the rinse water should run clear.

Rinse! Rinse! Rinse!