Dale Farm completes SustainabilitySurvey of its entire farmer network

​The information secured has allowed the management of the co-op to determine the carbon footprint of all the milk coming into its processing centres at the present time.

Dale Farm group chief executive, Nick Whelan, commented: “We now have a fully quantified carbon base line. This will underpin the development of farm management systems, which ensure that Dale Farm meets its future climate change targets.

“The participation shown by Dale Farm producers in committing to the recent survey cannot be underestimated. Our intention now is to move forward with a new, on-farm development programme for Dale Farm producers later in the autumn.”

But the Dale Farm representative is also conscious of the need for members of the Northern Ireland Executive at Stormont to address climate change in a more meaningful way.

“Farmers are concerned about the lack of clarity that surrounds the entire climate change agenda and what their role is in helping to address this issue into the future,” he said.

“In reality, the time for talking is over. Stormont must start to take real decisions, when it comes to Northern Ireland meeting its climate change targets: the clock is ticking.”

Nick Whelan made these comments against the backdrop of Dale Farm confirming a £70million investment in its cheddar processing facility at Dunmanbridge, Co. Tyrone.

He further explained: “The investment works at two levels. In the first instance it is allowing the business to modernise its processing operations for the future.

“Essentially, we have taken out milk driers that have been operating for the past 30 years and replaced them with a new start-of-the-art processing facility.

“But more than this it also sends out a signal that Dale Farm is looking to the future with confidence. And this principle can be extended to Northern Ireland’s entire dairy industry.”

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Nick Whelan continued: "Dale Farm has built a strong reputation as a leader in cheddar production, and thanks to our reputation for quality, sustainability and consistency, we are seeing strong customer growth in the category.

“Key to our success is the dedication and ingenuity demonstrated on a daily basis by our team right across the business. We are already exporting to 40 countries, and with this investment we want to build on that momentum and future proof our operation at Dunmanbridge for decades to come.”

Work on the expanded operation at Dunmanbridge is well underway and is on track to go live in February 2025. As well as improving and replacing existing site-wide services and utilities, the expansion will include a new high speed automated cheese slicing line, an increased warehouse footprint and investment in new patented products and processes.

The investment will increase the site’s cheese capacity by 20,000 tonnes per year, while also expanding its WPC (whey protein concentrate) capacity.

It will incorporate the integration of advanced energy efficient technologies which together with new production processes will reduce the site’s carbon footprint by an estimated 4,500 tonnes per year when compared against milk powder production. But it’s not all about cheese at Dale Farm.

“We also have extremely sustainable beverage, ice cream, dairy fat and animal feed compounding operations,” Nick Whelan commented.

“And we want to build on all of this for the future.”