November 2016 Newsletter

Milk Price & Supply

The Board of Directors have increased the milk price for the month of October by 1.5 cents per litre - bringing the price to 29.88 cpl (135.83 cents per gallon) at 3.60% butterfat and 3.30% protein, including milk price support of 0.5 cents per litre (cpl) by the Co-Op, Summer Somatic Cell Count (SCC) bonus of 0.5 cpl, SDAS bonus of 0.15 cpl and VAT at 5.2%.

The average price paid for the month is 36.87 cpl. This is based on the average butterfat of 4.58% and protein of 3.87%, including milk price support, SCC, SDAS bonuses and VAT.

Fixed Milk Price Scheme

Closing date for the 3^rd fixed milk price scheme is Wednesday the 23^rd of November 2016. The price for the 3 year period at 3.6% butterfat and 3.3% protein is 30.71 cents per litre including Summer SCC, SDAS bonus and Vat @ 5.4%.

Health Cert 2016

A large number of Health Certs are been received with no listing of animal numbers. This is creating a lot of extra work and unnecessary phone calls. The new cert no longer has a page where herd owners fill in all tag numbers of milk producing animals. However a signed list of all the milk producing animals on the farm is still required.

A pre-printed list is available from

1. Agfood.ie
2. ICBF
3. Veterinary Practitioner nominated and approved to TB test the herd.

If the herdowner cannot access a pre-printed list, a legible handwritten list on a page signed, dated and supplied by the herdowner is still acceptable. For further assistance contact Darren Lynch/ Tim Regan

Origin Green Sustainable Producer Awards 2016

Bord Bia held their Origin Green Sustainable Producer Awards 2016 last month. The Origin Green awards recognise the exceptional performance being achieved by members of the Bord Bia Quality Assurance schemes.

16 dairy finalists in these awards were divided in to four categories

1. Liquid Milk
2. Herds under 70 cows
3. Herds over 70 cows
4. Biggest carbon footprint reduction.

All finalists were selected on the basis of the results of the sustainability survey undertaken at the time of their farm audit. Their farms are among the leading sustainable dairy producers in the country, concerning farm efficiency, carbon footprint and water quality.

Donal and Carmel O’Connor represented Drinagh in the larger herds category. Drinagh wish to congratulate Donal and Carmel on reaching the final of the awards.

Cell Check Milking for Quality Award 2015

The CellCheck Milking for Quality awards is now in its third year. The award is given to the 500 milk suppliers nationally with the lowest, weighted annual average SCC. This is based on SCC data collected by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and analysed by ICBF. Any suppliers with at least 9 months SCC results are considered eligible. Drinagh is well represented and especially proud that 32 of our milk suppliers have qualified for the CellCheck Milking for Quality award based on 2015 results.

We are sure that in time this will become a prestigious and much sought-after annual award. Each winner will receive a waterproof plaque (see picture) that is designed to be mounted on the wall of their dairy or milking parlour.

The 32 Drinagh award winners are listed below in alphabetical order