Tirlán’s Belview site is home to two major processing plants. The first is the original Belview plant, which has been in operation since 2015, producing milk powders.

The second is Kilkenny Cheese Ltd (KCL), a joint venture between Tirlán and the family-owned international dairy business Royal A-Ware. The cheese plant began production in 2024 and produces two main products, gouda and edam cheese.

In total, Tirlán has a milk pool of approximately 3.2 billion litres, of which around 1 billion litres is processed at Belview across the two plants.

This week, the Irish Farmers Journal had the opportunity to tour the facilities as part of the open day.

Kilkenny Cheese Ltd

The Kilkenny Cheese plant, now coming to the end of its third season in operation, produces over 55,000t of cheese for export each year.

The factory operates from early February until late November, processing between one and two million litres of raw milk each day.

Gouda and edam cheese are produced at the plant and exported to mainland Europe. Gouda is the main product, accounting for approximately 80% of total cheese production.

When milk enters the plant, it is first pasteurised to kill off harmful bacteria before being standardised to ensure a consistent composition in the finished product.

From there, rennet, starter cultures and calcium chloride are added to form a curd. Once the curd has been rinsed, it moves to the next stage of the process for pressing.

The curd is pressed into blocks of cheese before passing through a brine bath, where it remains for between two and four days to absorb salt from the brine solution.

Once the brining process is complete, the cheese is packaged into 15.5kg ‘euro-blocks’ before being shipped to Europe.

The process is highly automated, with very little manual intervention required outside of equipment maintenance and quality control.

Unlike cheddar cheese, which can be stored for long periods before consumption, gouda and edam are generally consumed within 12 to 14 weeks of production.

Belview

The original Belview plant has been in operation since 2015 and is fully owned by Tirlán. Like the cheese plant, it is highly automated, with 90 staff working across flexible shifts.

The plant has the capacity to process up to five million litres of milk per day and operates all year round.

Milk is processed into six different products: whole milk powder, skim milk powder, fat-filled milk powder, whey milk powder, buttermilk powder and liquid skim for infant formula processing.

Currently, the main product being manufactured at the site is fat-filled milk powder, which is primarily exported to African markets.

There, it is used as an ingredient in the production of creams, yoghurts, ice cream and drinking milk.

Each week, over 3,000t of powder is produced at the plant, with products exported to markets across the world.

When milk enters the intake facility, it is standardised and pasteurised. At this stage, the milk contains approximately 10% solids.

From there, the milk is heated again to evaporate much of its water content and produce a more concentrated product. By the end of the evaporation process, the solids content has increased to approximately 50%.

Spray drying is one of the final stages of production, further removing moisture until the finished powder has a moisture content of approximately 3%.

The powder is then packaged into either 25kg bags or larger bulk bags containing 1,000kg.

From there, it is transported to a local warehouse, where it is stored for a number of weeks before being exported to customers in more than 53 countries.

Comment

The supplier open days are something Tirlán has been running for several years now. They offer an excellent opportunity for milk suppliers, who work tirelessly throughout the year to produce high-quality milk, to see first-hand what happens to their product once it leaves the farm and the markets it eventually reaches.

Equally, the days give staff working at Tirlán’s processing sites an opportunity to meet the farmers who supply the milk they process every day.

The dairy industry, and particularly the co-op model, is unique in the relationship between farmers and processors. It is days like these that bring that relationship to life and remind everyone involved of the important role they play in getting Irish dairy products from farm to market.