When it comes to getting Kay Cooney a birthday, Christmas or Mother’s Day present, her family know exactly what she wants. It’s not a fancy handbag or a day at a luxury spa. What cheese maker Kay really wants and badly needs is an electric curd mill. Now, an electric curd mill wasn’t something Kay ever expected to want, but all that changed when making cheese became part of her life.

It all goes back almost 17 years to when Kay Dillon married Paddy Cooney and they took over the family dairy farm from Paddy’s parents, Chris and Kit. The farm is in the townland of Garranmore, a lovely location facing Lough Derg on the scenic triangle between Garrykennedy and Youghal Quay.

The young couple started with 35 cows and Paddy kept his job as a production supervisor in the nearby ABP meat factory in Nenagh. Kay was and still is a general nurse in St John’s in Limerick. Gradually the cow numbers increased and this year they are milking 85 with Paddy farming full time.

The idea of making their own cheese had been at the back of Paddy’s mind from the time he was at Gurteen Agricultural College where it was presented as an alternative farm enterprise.

“I never forgot that talk. Then a few years ago I bought a 1,200 litre cheese vat and it stayed in the shed for two years because we didn’t know what to do with it.”

Learning from experts

They began to learn all about making cheese. They talked to the experts – farmhouse cheese makers, Teagasc Moorepark – and they kept talking until one day Breeda Maher, maker of Cooleeney cheese, asked them why they were still talking about it instead of going and doing it.

“It was the kick we needed,” says Kay. She had completed a farmhouse cheese making Fetac Level 4 course while Paddy had a course in cheese and yoghurt making under his belt. They took on an incubation unit in Rearcross and started making their raw milk cheddar cheese, which they named Derg Cheese.

It wasn’t long before they realised the hour each-way journey with fresh milk wasn’t going to work. It was difficult to get the milk to Rearcross in peak condition. But they learned a lot and it convinced them to make the giant leap of investing in a cheese making facility on the home farm.

“We knew exactly what we wanted to build and Eddie O’Neill and Gerard Barry of Teagasc could not have been more helpful. Lucy Hayes, producer of Mount Callan cheese, gave us huge encouragement as well.”

In July 2015, their 30 by 60 foot unit was up and running. It consists of two temperature controlled maturing rooms capable of holding 10 tonnes of cheese, the dairy, a packing room, storage space and an office. And there’s plenty of scope for expansion.

So much to learn

Making the cheese is one thing, but branding and marketing it required a whole different skill set.

“I will never forget the first time I took some of our cheese into Peter Ward of Country Choice in Nenagh. He said he had customers in that night and to come back and do a tasting with them. He told me to stand in a certain place and to tell them all about our cheese. I was scared to death,” recalls Kay.

She says the logo and branding “took ages”.

“We wanted something simple and traditional but modern at the same time.” Working with the Tipperary Food Producers Network, Cais and the Taste of Lough Derg has given Kay and Paddy plenty of opportunity to promote Derg Cheese.

Kay has just completed an owner management development programme accredited by WIT.

“I couldn’t say enough about it. Twelve of us with all sorts of businesses were on the course and much of it was peer learning and it was excellent.”

Now with a year and a half’s production behind them, demand for Derg Cheese has far outstripped supply. What they produce is totally taken up by speciality cheese shops such as Sheridan’s of South Anne St in Dublin and the Pig’s Back in the English Market.

Value added plain to be seen

The plan now is to grow production from one and a half tonnes to 10 tonnes in three years. When it comes to value added there is no argument. It takes 10 litres of milk to make a kilo of cheese. They are getting 23c/l for the milk, leaving a positive difference of up to €9 on 10 litres of milk.

“In all we’ve invested €100,000 in this cheese making facility. Our hope is that by year three the business will be paying for itself,” says Kay.

One of the added advantages of making cheese on the family farm is that Kay and Paddy’s children, Shauna (16), Joe (14) and Emma (11), are all involved and interested in the business. All help make the cheese with Joe being interested in the science side, while Shauna and Emma maintain the Facebook page and do all the social media.

“They like the cheese and love going into cheese shops and seeing it for sale. They are very proud of it too,” says Kay.

And they have good reason to be proud. In a very short time Derg Cheese has won accolades from Cais, the McKenna guides and the Melton Mowbray Show. For Kay and Paddy and the family, it’s about safeguarding the farm for the next generation.

“It’s still a wow to see our cheese for sale in a specialist cheese shop.

“It makes all the work worthwhile,” says Kay.

For further details and information, email dergfarmhousecheese@gmail.ie or call Kay Cooney on 086-878 9973.

Stockists: Sheridan’s, St Anne St Dublin; The Flying Cheese Brigade; The Little Cheese Shop in Dingle; Green Sheep in Thurles; The Peppermill in Nenagh; Le Bouchon, Portumna; Country Choice in The Milk Market, Limerick and Nenagh; and Pig’s Back in the English Market in Cork. CL