“Cooperative ethos is at the heart of everything we do” – Dale Farm Director

Dale Farm is owned by 1,300 dairy farmers who supply it with quality, nutritious milk, which is used to manufacture branded and own-label dairy products including milk, cheese, butter and ice cream for the retail, foodservice and food ingredients markets globally.

As Producer Services Director, Neville Graham leads Dale Farm’s Agricultural Division, comprising the cooperative’s farm support, producer services and sustainability teams that support the farming supply base.

“As a farmer-owned cooperative, our key priority is supporting our producers and ensuring the sustainability and profitability of our members’ dairy farm businesses,” Neville said.

Neville joined Dale Farm in 2017 and has served several roles in the Agricultural Division, most recently as Head of Farmer Services. He has decades of experience in the industry and previously held roles including lecturer, agricultural technologist, farm adviser and Farm Director for the Greenmount Estate at the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise.

Key to Neville’s day-to-day role in Dale Farm is supporting the cooperative’s farm liaison team who deliver tailored advice and hands-on support to dairy farmers.

“On a daily basis we have team members advising our producers and assisting with everything from Red Tractor inspections, milk quality, supply contracts, variations to milk payments and helping new entrants to the cooperative convert their farms to dairy production,” Neville adds.

“Our farm liaison advisers are a first point of contact between producers and the cooperative – working in partnership with farmers in every area of managing a successful dairy farm enterprise.”

Dale Farm services include the supply and maintenance of milk tanks through Tankcare and parlour services through Parlour Care. Dale Farm’s Dairy Herd Management service looks after milk recording, herd health and pregnancy testing and oversees the sales and installation of the Sensehub cow monitoring system.

Dale Farm’s Agricultural Division also supports farmers in improving environmental outcomes – with the sustainability advisory team capturing data to track carbon footprint on-farm and, unique to the industry, supplying bespoke nutrient management advice as part of the cooperative’s Future Strong sustainability programme. Launched in 2023, Future Strong is a framework for reducing emissions and improving efficiency both on farm and the factory floor.

“When we talk about sustainability, it’s not just about reducing our carbon footprint and improving our environmental impact, but also ensuring that producers have sustainable, efficient and profitable enterprises for generations to come,” Neville adds. “We want to make farm businesses, and the cooperative as a whole, more sustainable in every sense of the word.

“We’re delighted with how our farmers are engaging with the programme, with near universal participation in our farm surveys and all producers working with us to develop tailored nutrient management plans for each farm, with the careful support of our farmer liaison and sustainability teams.”

Neville says the close working relationship with producers stems from Dale Farm’s cooperative ethos. “The cooperative model has served the dairy industry in Northern Ireland well for decades. That cooperative ethos is at the heart of everything we do – our work is about ensuring Dale Farm’s continued growth and success.

“One of my goals in this new role is to promote better recognition throughout the supply chain of our farmer members’ dedication, skills, and passion for delivering the high quality milk behind our award winning dairy products. Our dairy farmers have been resilient in the face of challenges including input cost inflation, volatile global markets, and climate change. Against this backdrop, that resilience and commitment to quality has enabled farm businesses to continue to succeed, and for our cooperative to continue to grow.

“For my part, and that of our Agricultural Division and the business as a whole, I want to play a key role in helping our supply base to navigate the challenges facing the dairy sector and in turn yield greater returns for our producers.”