Milk Price

The base milk price for January is unchanged at 31.89 cents per litre (144.97 cents per gallon) at 3.60% butterfat and 3.30% protein, including Winter Somatic Cell Count (SCC) bonus of 0.88 cpl, SDAS bonus of 0.15 cpl and increased VAT rate of 5.4%. The milk price support of 0.50 cpl in place for 2016 has now ceased.

The average price paid for the month is 34.10 cpl. This is based on the average butterfat of 4.07% and protein of 3.35%, including SCC & SDAS bonuses and VAT

Johne’s Disease Management

The bacteria that cause Johne’s Disease (MAP) can be present in the colostrum and milk of infected cows. Therefore it is essential that calves, particularly those calves that will be retained for breeding, are fed colostrum and milk which has a low risk of carrying MAP.

To achieve this, the following measures should be adopted:

1. Test all cows individually to identify high risk cows.
2. Avoid feeding calves colostrum or milk from any test positive or test inconclusive cow.
3. Do not pool colostrum or milk. If one of the cows is infected, her milk could contaminate the entire pool
4. Harvest colostrum and milk cleanly – there should be no faecal contamination.
5. Ensure all calf feeding utensils are thoroughly and frequently washed with hot water and detergent.
6. After feeding calves adequate colostrum move them on to milk replacer. Milk replacer has a much lower risk of containing MAP than whole milk.
7. Build up a bank of frozen colostrum from low-risk cows in your own herd (i.e. cows that have tested negative over multiple cycles of individual testing)
8. If calves are fed colostrum or milk from cows other than their own dam, record these details.
9. Avoid the use of waste milk for feeding calves.

Spring Dairy Promotion

The Spring Dairy Promotion leaflet is included in the month’s accounts

There is a huge range of products on offer from

• milk replacer
• calf feed & health
• calving accessories
• detergents & dairy accessories

Call to your local branch or contact Richard Murphy/ David Shiels for more information.

Carbery Bonus 2016

At a recent board meeting the Carbery Board approved a bonus payment of 1.0 cents per litre on milk supplied by Drinagh in 2016.

Agriculture Cashflow Support Loan

The Agriculture Cashflow Support loan was launched on the 31^st of January 2017 and is now available to all farmers.

Key aspects of the scheme are:

• Loans of up to a max of €150,000
• Loan term of up to 6 years
• Loans are unsecured
• Interest rate of 2.95% for the term of the loan
• First come first served basis with expectation that the fund will be utilised quickly.

Loans can be used for:

• Refinancing existing farm creditors
• Refinancing overdraft
• Carbery shares purchased in 2016
• Stock purchases for 2017

Loans cannot be used for new investments in capital expenditure or fixed assets. ContactAllied Irish Bank, Bank of Ireland and Ulster Bank for more information.

Carbery Shares

The Carbery Milk Supply Share scheme introduced a requirement for milk suppliers to have a minimum shareholding aligned to their milk supply with effect from 1^st April 2015. All suppliers received information about their Carbery shares in the recent weeks.

New Option:

Processing notes are a new addition to the share scheme this year. Suppliers now have the option to purchase processing notes or Carbery shares to match their milk supply. Similar to Carbery shares 25 processing notes are required per 1000 litres of new milk supplied in 2016. The price of processing notes is €1 and this price is fixed for a period of 3 years. This is different to the share price that can increase or decrease in value each year.

• For any supplier that did not increase their 2016 milk supply on 2015 level no further action is required.
• Suppliers that increased their 2016 milk supply above 2015 levels are required to meet the requirements of the Carbery Share Scheme.

There are a number of options available to suppliers to meet their share requirements:

Suppliers may also use any mix of options A, B and C in order to meet their shares requirements.

The current trading window closes on the 24^th of February 2017. Suppliers with any queries should contact the Share Scheme Co-ordinator on (023) 8822318 or Seamus Daly / Tim Regan / Darren Lynch on (028) 30800.