Dairygold’s AGM was a better-natured affair than might have been anticipated a couple of months ago. The concerned suppliers pressure group had threatened it would seek an EGM at one point, but points were made and countered at Tuesday’s meeting at the Sliver Springs hotel in Cork.

The core disagreements remain, but milk price is good, the weather is beautiful, cows are milking well, and that always will take the edge off.

Meanwhile, the Glanbia AGM took place on Wednesday. I understand the lunch afterwards was excellent, but appetites may have been curbed by the underwhelming news coming from the top table. It’s been a very tough few months for the company.

On 1 November, Glanbia’s share price was over €16. On Tuesday it hovered at slightly over a tenner. That’s a 37% drop in the value of the company in just six months.

Of course, share price can go up as well as down, and CEO Hugh McGuire’s presentation to shareholders at the AGM would suggest any recovery will be a slow climb rather than a rapid recovery, although it rallied to €11.50 at lunchtime on Wednesday.

Next week sees Tirlán’s AGM. Glanbia’s slump has wiped €400m from Tirlán’s asset value, but internal co-op politics will also feature.

The co-op’s chair will no longer be subject to defending their seat on the board, the council or the local advisory committee.

It is presumably being put in place (Putin- place?) to provide stability within the leadership of Ireland’s largest co-op.

It won’t affect the current chair at all. John Murphy survived a vigorous challenge to his board seat in north Wexford/east Wicklow late last year, and the term he earned then will bring him up to Tirlán’s retirement age.

And I understand that the Regional Advisory Committee can still remove their board member by means of a no-confidence motion requiring the support of two-thirds of the members. And the Tirlán council can remove any board member with a similar vote.

Murphy isn’t the first chair to face a local challenge. Liam Herlihy was opposed locally when chairing Glanbia plc and co-op. What would the markets have made of him being unseated? His challenger withdrew at the 11th hour. The Tirlán board has its internal politicking too. The chair is elected every two years, the vice-chairs annually. Henry Corbally was unseated by Martin Keane in 2018, Keane lost the board’s support two years later. Perhaps reform is needed here too.