The great and the good of the dairy world gathered in Tipp town last Friday to mark the official opening of the new dryer at Tipperary Co-op.

The question everyone was asking – “is this going to be the last of the significant dryer opening ceremonies?” As we all know, the dairy industry has had a big run of ribbon cutting of late.

When I scanned the photos of the Tipp Co-op shindig I saw local TDs Jackie Cahill and Michael Lowry front and centre with Minister McConalogue.

There was a good turnout from Aurivo, which is the former hunting ground of Tipp’s CEO John Daly, with former Aurivo CEO Aaron Forde and current Aurivo general manager of dairy Stephen Blewitt in the crowd.

Tipperary Co-op is everyone’s friend at the moment as it is one of the only co-ops to have spare capacity so there was a sprinkling of representatives from the big processors.

In his speech, CEO John Daly referenced that Tipp Co-op has had its troubles,with contamination, environmental issues, and when the Dutch processing equipment company it had purchased from went into insolvency, it looked like someone was driving nails into the Tipp Co-op coffin.

Happily last Friday marked a new start for the west Tipperary co-op. I wish them luck.