The Global Dairy Trade (GDT) index has fallen for the third successive auction event today (Tuesday, November 1).

The index has fallen back by 3.9%, to an average price of $3,537/MT across all products.

The index now stands at 1,069 after event 319.

142 bidders participated across 18 bidding rounds and 2 hours and 16 minutes, with 116 winning bidders emerging.

Overall, 28,867MT of product were sold today.

Across the various products, all but one recorded a decrease in sub-index.

The one exception to today’s trend was butter, which saw an increase of just 0.2% to $4,868/MT.

Butter milk powder (BMP) saw the largest decrease, falling by 11.4% to $2,973/MT.

Skim milk powder (SMP) also saw a significant fall, taking an 8.5% hit to $2,972/MT.

Whole milk powder (WMP) decreased by 3.4% to $3,279/MT, while anhydrous milk fat (AMF) slid back by 1.7% to $5,562/MT.

Lactose fell back by 1% to $1,300/MT, and cheddar decreased by 0.9% to $4,802/MT.

Dairy farm excretion rates

In other dairy-related news, The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is developing plans for a “simple and efficient” mechanism to verify the appropriate nutrient excretion rate based on each dairy herd’s milk production.

According to the department, this mechanism aims to minimise any administrative burden being placed on farmers and to allow the earliest possible confirmation of which band each dairy farmer should fall into.

Currently, the excretion rate for all dairy cows is 89kg of organic nitrogen (N)/cow. But under proposed revisions to the Nitrates Action Programme (NAP), higher yielding cows will be given a higher level of N excretion due to their larger feed intake requirements.

The bands will be based on milk yield, replacing the current 89kg of organic N/cow, as follows:

Bands Milk yields Excretion rate
Band 1 <4,500kg of milk 80kg organic N/cow
Band 2 4,500-6,500kg of milk 92kg organic N/cow
Band 3 >6,500kg of milk 106kg organic N/cow
Source: DAFM

On foot of queries from Agriland, a department spokesperson said last week: “The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is aware that there are rumours circulating that every dairy farmer will be assigned to the highest band and be asked to prove otherwise. The rumours are simply not accurate.”