The £70m investment being made in cheddar cheese production at the Dale Farm facility at Dunmanbridge outside Cookstown is “on time and on budget”, the co-op’s CEO, Nick Whelan has confirmed.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal at the Winter Fair, Whelan said the first product was put through the new facility last Monday and he is hopeful it will be running at “full tilt” by the end of February 2025.

The investment adds capacity of 20,000t of cheese per year. With the co-op getting out of the milk-drying business, that milk will be redirected into cheese.

Yield focus

However, in the longer term, Whelan is keen to grow the Dale Farm milk pool by focusing on yield per cow. Among suppliers, it currently sits around 7,300 litres. “The ambition is to get that up to 8,000 to 8,500l,” he said.

Looking at 2024 milk supply, it has remained very resilient said Whelan, with significant growth seen in recent weeks. In the last six weeks, Dale Farm is up 10% year-on-year and in the six weeks before that, it was up 8%.

“Milk supply is strong – a lot stronger than we would have forecast ourselves,” he said.

On returns to farmers, he thinks the top of the market has been reached for now, with prices to plateau over the next couple of months. Beyond that, it is very much dependent on weather events, etc, and their impact on global supply.

That view was echoed by Lakeland Dairies CEO Colin Kelly. He pointed to volatility in European butter price, which got to over €8,000/t in September, but has since come down to the low €7,000s.

“We are still looking at Q1 prices of €6,900/t and Q2 price of €6,700/t. Historically they are very good prices. We need it to be at those type of levels to be sustainable for people,” he said.