The morning dawned windy and wet. The lads were going on the annual discussion group outing. I heard Colm taking in the cows at 6am. I could imagine their frustration at being roused from the field while it was still dark.

I travelled to Mitchelstown for the official opening of Kerrygold Park, Ornua’s new €38m butter making and packing plant. The Kerrygold Park entrance came into sight. Beautifully executed, the driveway sweeps up to the building and the view across the green pastures of the surrounding countryside is just magnificent.

The purebred Jersey and crossbred heifers of the Teagasc Moorepark heifer project came into view. It was as if they had been warned that there was to be no lying down today, that they had to walk in unison, graze periodically and emphasise their dairy characteristics for the visitors.

A marquee had been erected for the occasion. Jeanne Kelly of Ornua kept proceedings moving to plan. Speakers talked of pride and offered congratulations to Ornua. For many there was a collective sigh of relief at seeing the project come to fruition. It has taken decades to get this one on the move, so it was a day of deeper inner smiles for some and outward celebratory ones for others.

Ornua’s chief executive, Kevin Lane, firmly acknowledged Irish dairy farmers: “From the fields to the processors, the success of Kerrygold is based on the outstanding quality of the milk and cream that goes into it. Now we have a world-class production and packing facility to complete the value chain.”

SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP

The building itself is quite plain, yet the architects have made it appear as if it’s always been there – a part of the spectacular countryside from which it draws the white gold that becomes the golden magic that transforms our toast, scones, eggs and spuds into great food memories.

Butter symbolises home and the kitchen table. Lucky for us dairy farmers, the brand of Kerrygold butter created in 1962 and nurtured through the decades by An Bord Bainne and now Ornua has become iconic across the world. It enjoys leading positions in many of its markets.

There were three main stakeholder groups present: the top brass who are the corporate world of CEOs and business people; the factory personnel who have jobs in the facility; and the dairy farmers.

For something like this project to succeed, it also requires the blessing of the political machine which includes the Government, the wider body of politicians and the state agencies like Enterprise Ireland and Teagasc.

Minister Mary Mitchell O’Connor was fulsome in her praise for all involved. She celebrated the fact that 65 jobs had been created for the area. She also pointed out that food production in Ireland employs a massive 166,000 people. She complimented Ornua on the success of the Kerrygold brand and on their vision for the dairy industry.

Jim Woulfe, CEO of Dairygold, explained that the Dairygold plant is “connected to the Kerrygold facility and pumps 1m litres of cream each week to the plant”, creating obvious efficiencies.

He called it a symbiotic relationship. He also said that Irish dairy farmers are very demanding of him on milk price! Is it any wonder? We are after a tough 18 months.

The slow improvement in milk price is welcome, but volumes are low and so will not change our bottom lines too much until the spring. However, every price increase is needed.

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed, said: “The opening of Kerrygold Park is a major vote of confidence in the future of the Irish dairy industry.”

He added that: “Increasing global population, urbanisation and the westernisation of the diet in developing countries offers Ireland’s dairy industry significant opportunity for expansion.”

TOUR

We toured the enormous plant in small groups. We were sufficiently gowned up so as not to introduce any nasty bugs into the system. Titles and positions mattered no more. Ministers and farmers looked the same. It was just faces. Plant personnel were on hand to explain each step in the process. It was fascinating.

One machine was precision wrapping pounds of butter at a rate of 250 units/minute. I was particularly impressed by the warehouse crane that is completely automated and can be programmed to work all night, sorting out different pallets of product into orders for dispatch when the trucks arrive in the morning.

LINK IN THE CHAIN

Once back in Woodside, it was time to attend to farming duties. The first job was to give meal to the late spring calves in the outside block. Diarmuid and I set out. He took the bag out of the bunker and crossed to the trough.

The crossbred calves followed him. These are the youngest animals on our farm. In a way it’s the beginning of the story. In 17 months they will be entering the milking parlour.

The milk will flow into the tank to be collected by the Dairygold truck. It will take the M8 to Dairygold in Mitchelstown. It will then be pumped across to Ornua and made into the unique tasting butter that is golden in colour due to the high levels of beta carotene in the grass. It will be packed into the foil wrappers that we all know so well. At least 60 of those will be purchased for the O’Leary table, completing the circle of butter fat coming home again.

Why wouldn’t we be passionate about the dairy industry when our daily lives are so wrapped in it? We want a cut of that golden Kerrygold foil.

It is our means of earning a living and we are entitled to do that to support our families and our businesses. CL