For dairy farmers, the key metric is the price they are being paid for a litre of milk.

The Irish Farmers Journal milk league data for July puts in stark contrast the varying fortunes of suppliers to both co-ops this year. In July a typical milk supplier would have had €953 plus VAT extra in their milk cheque for the month if they were supplying Arrabawn than if they were supplying Tipp

Once again, Arrabawn’s performance over recent years has been significantly better than Tipp’s. While both processors were close to the bottom of the milk league in 2020, since then Arrabawn has moved up the ranks, making it into the top three this year. Tipperary has remained close to the bottom.

Arrabawn has paid more to suppliers every year since 2020, meaning a cumulative extra €24,800 in payments above what a Tipperary supplier could have received, if they were delivering 500,000 litres of milk at national milk solids (see graph).

While past performance is not always a great guide to the future in a changing business, this once again shows how very different both processors are from a financial strength perspective.