Dairygold has imposed a €4/t surcharge on feed specifically requested for weekend delivery. The measure came into force on 1 July, prompting a furious reaction from farmers.

Dairygold claimed in correspondence with farmer members that the €4/t charge reflected the higher costs associated with weekend deliveries.

“Feed orders specifically requested for weekend delivery will have a surcharge of €4 per tonne applied from 1 July, 2024,” Dairygold stated.

A Dairygold spokesperson told the Irish Farmers Journal that the surcharge only applies to the second and subsequent weekend specific bulk feed order requests.

"In recent years, Dairygold has experienced significant shifts in customer feed order patterns. The aim of this new initiative is to encourage ordering for weekday deliveries which will allow grain stores, transport and production logistics to be optimised, ensure timely order fulfilment and delivery and aid with our decarbonisation efforts across the business," the spokesperson said.

Earlier orders

The imposition of the surcharge is also viewed as a mechanism to encourage farmers to order feed earlier in the week. Feed mills claim that a growing percentage of orders are placed late in the week, resulting in a high proportion of deliveries being made over the weekend.

But Dairygold’s move has provoked an angry response at farmer meetings.

Farmers questioned the justification for imposing additional charges on milk suppliers in a year where margins are extremely tight and feed costs are already running well ahead of average.

With dairy farmers generally feeding 5kg to 6kg of nuts a day in the parlour across much of the south and east as a result of poor grass growth, feed sales are running 15% to 20% above average.

One southern merchant described demand as unprecedented.

“The increased feed usage this year, and bigger cow numbers generally, have ramped up the pressure on feed mills. To make matters worse, farmers are not giving notice when placing orders, and expect same-day delivery,” he said.

These challenges have been exacerbated by insufficient on-farm feed storage for the bigger numbers of cows currently being milked. “A lot of farmers are still working with the six-tonne and eight-tonne meal bins they had for 70 cows, even though they could now be milking over 100. Herds of this size need a 10t to 12t bin,” one farmer commented.