Current prices, the retail-farmgate gap, and real profitability for Irish dairy farmers. See how dairy compares to hemp for 2025.
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EU butter pricing and source notes load from the live dairy commodity feed.
Irish co-op milk payout loads from the live milk benchmark feed.
The third card shows the live dairy concentrate benchmark rather than a fixed historic margin estimate.
Monthly average retail butter prices vs farmgate milk prices in Ireland.
Butter can stay firm in wholesale or retail channels while the milk cheque still feels weak on farm. That is because processors are selling a basket of products, smoothing payouts, and absorbing costs long before the value reaches the yard.
For dairy farms, butter is useful as a processor-side signal, not as a direct promise of margin. If butter is strong but feed, fertiliser, and power are still elevated, the farm can remain under pressure even when shelf prices look healthy.
That is where diversification matters. Hemp will not replace milk output, but it can give some farms a seasonal income stream that is not tied to parlour routine or daily feed demand.
