Lakeland Dairies is set to introduce a peak penalty on milk supplied to the processor in April, May, and June in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Lakeland Dairies operates within a 19 county catchment area across the northern half of the island of Ireland.
For years, Lakeland Dairies has told dairy farmers it would take all the milk they produced and that processing capacity was not a limiting factor.
The largest co-op in the country, which processes over two billion litres of milk per year, is proposing to introduce the milk payment charge in 2023, according to the Farmer’s Journal.
Other privately owned dairy processors across Europe have done this when capacity was limited, rather than invest in processing.
Lakeland will be the first Irish processor to attempt to impose a peak penalty, while allowing volume growth and introducing a new off-season bonus.
