Local dairy farmers have “no idea” how they will be impacted when Monaghan-headquartered Lacpatrick Dairies merges with another food group following an ongoing strategic review.

LacPatrick which processes milk bought from farmers based in counties Fermanagh, Monaghan, Tyrone and Derry announced last week that it is pursuing options around “partnerships, joint ventures and mergers.”
The consensus among the farming community is, if one of “the big three” i.e. Lakeland Dairies, Glanbia or Dale Farm, merge with LacPatrick, it will lead to a “monopolisation” of the market.
“When there are more buyers out there, it would be to the farmer’s advantage,” said Gerry Mullally, from Letterbreen, who sells to LacPatrick.
“It could potentially leave farmers with less competition; the bigger boys can control the price even more,” added David Kenwell from Dromore, who sells to Lakeland.
LacPatrick was formed in 2015; a merger of Ballyrashane Co-Op and Town of Monaghan Co-op, which a number of farmers in Fermanagh would historically have been supplying into.
LacPatrick Chairman Andrew McConkey said the review follows “a number of approaches from international and national companies from the sector in recent months.”
He said the LacPatrick board has agreed to purse “a number of strategic options” that would be in the interest of its suppliers, shareholders, staff and customers.
Dale Farm – formerly United Dairy Farmers – which owns award-winning dairy brands including the speciality Fivemiletown Cheese has confirmed it is interested in in the LacPatrick developments.
Meanwhile, Cavan headquartered Lakeland and Kilkenny based Glanbia have remained tight-lipped about whether they are in the running.
LacPatrick set the price for March milk at 25 pence per litre (minus two pence per litre on the February price), saying the decision comes “on the back of continued weakness in the dairy markets, especially for powders.”
This is around three or four pence lower than their competitors, according to David Kenwell who has a dairy herd of 350 cows. 
“Milk prices are down at a time when farmers need a bit more stability - it’s a global trend because there’s a fair level of milk in the world,” he said.
Official figures from the Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) show the Northern Ireland average farm gate price of milk (including retrospective bonuses) peaked at 33 pence per litre in November 2017 and declined to 32.65 pence in December 2017, 29.93 pence in January 2018 and 28.75 pence in February 2018.
“It’s become a very volatile market,” said Mr. Kenwell, adding: “Milk is not the number one product that it used to be because dairy isn’t as popular and many people take supplements instead of certain food products and many people are lactose intolerant.” He explained that if the economies in China and the Far East are performing well, demand for milk - which is a luxury product for their citizens - will increase.”
In his opinion, “a lot of ROI companies are interested in buying into LacPatrick because, should Brexit borders and tariffs come into play, a company operating on both sides of the border can control the market even more.”
Gerry Mullally and his son run a herd of 60 dairy cows at Letterbreen. He began selling milk to the Town of Monaghan co-op in 1992 and only noticed a few administration changes when LacPatrick was created three years ago.
“We’ve always been paid well up to now but we have no idea what impact this will have on price,” he commented.
Mr. Mullally keeps a close eye on the Global Dairy Trade auction in New Zealand, which sets reference prices for globally traded dairy ingredients. “It is an indicator of the price in the Northern Hemisphere. If they have a drought or bad weather and milk is scare down there, we usually get a better price up here,” he said.
Mr. Mullally noted that a number of farmers have given in their notice and have moved from LacPatrick to another processor.