'Positive feel' around upcoming milk price announcements

Speaking in advance of the upcoming round of milk price announcements for February supplies, the Chairperson of ICMSA’s Dairy Committee, Noel Murphy, said that there was a more positive feel to this round of announcements and ICMSA expected them to be, tentatively, “uplifting”.

“After six months of negative milk prices, the first two months of 2026 have been positive for milk and dairy ‘spot’ markets.

There has been five consecutive rises in the Global Dairy Trade and while the GDT metric may not directly impact Irish and European prices in some cases, the positive sentiment has also been felt on European quotes — it has always been a strong indicator of where milk prices should be going”, said Mr Murphy.

The ICMSA Dairy Chairperson noted that since the beginning of 2026, Dutch dairy quotes for the ‘standard’ butter and skim milk powder mix has risen 6.5cpl in that nine-week period and increased 1.5cpl alone in the last week.

He said that whole milk powder has also seen gains in that time to the tune of 3cpl, showing confidence in the market that has not been seen in the last six months.

“Against the current and ongoing price-gouging we are seeing in farm inputs such as fuel and fertilizer in the last week and with milk already below the cost of production, every cent will matter to dairy farmers this Spring and milk price rises should start immediately.

“Add to that, the longer housing period that cows are currently going through, and we can see why costs are to the forefront of farmers minds.

“February is not a traditionally a ‘Big’ supply month with only 4% of the annual supply of a traditional spring herd, but it is still hugely important, and it is usually the first milk payment of the year and so critical to farmer confidence.

“It is time to make that payment a positive one and ensure that 2026 starts on a badly needed ‘upbeat’ note for all dairy farmers. The market has moved up and so must milk prices”, he concluded.