Business advice on creating dairy products

grahamor

Hi,

I'm interested in producing high quality dairy products (butter and yoghurt) using the best possible raw materials i can get my hands on.

Part of the R&D would be testing which milk/cream creates the best product, i.e. grass fed Jersey cow milk from spring/summer has the potential to taste the best and produce a naturally yellow butter etc.

I'm wondering if dairy farms would deal with a new business that orders quite small amounts to start off with ? Is it out of the question to think that a farm in Cork would deliver say 100 litres of cream or milk to somewhere near Dublin once a week ? Excuse my ignorance on this matter as i dont have a clue ! Maybe a courier could deliver it ?

Next up would be the butter and yoghurt production facility. Again, very small to begin with with an emphasis on quality not quantity. Could i rent the larger pieces of equipment to start off with ?

If I wanted to seek funding for getting the business going should i approach my local enterprise office or perhaps Enterprise Ireland ? I would be thinking of using 25k of savings and seeking funding for another 25k. These numbers are just ballpark figures for now.

What about business advice on this sector in general. Any tips or advice on networking etc. ?

Thanks for any advice and sorry for such a beginner post !

pedroeibar1

grahamor wrote: »

Hi,

.....I'm wondering if dairy farms would deal with a new business that orders quite small amounts to start off with ? Is it out of the question to think that a farm in Cork would deliver say 100 litres of cream or milk to somewhere near Dublin once a week ? Excuse my ignorance on this matter as i dont have a clue ! Maybe a courier could deliver it ?............Thanks for any advice and sorry for such a beginner post !

You need to do some homework first, produce some thought-out ideas and you will then obtain help here. From what you have written you have no idea of what is involved, no research done. Do you even know that you are thinking about entering a highly regulated sector??

grahamor

Thanks for the reply. I've was more looking for answers to some general queries before getting properly started with the research.

I will begin with thinking out the products i wish to create and obtain a list of dairy farms that i could potentially source milk from. I can then contact them to find out more details about how their milk is produced , pay them a visit and ask about ordering small amounts.

PhoenixParker

You'll probably have better luck in the farming forum. There's a number of dairy farmers posting there and they'll be more familiar with agri-business and related funding opportunities.

BnB

grahamor wrote: »

....Part of the R&D would be testing which milk/cream creates the best product, i.e. grass fed Jersey cow milk from spring/summer has the potential to taste the best and produce a naturally yellow butter etc.

I'm wondering if dairy farms would deal with a new business that orders quite small amounts to start off with ? Is it out of the question to think that a farm in Cork would deliver say 100 litres of cream or milk to somewhere near Dublin once a week ? Excuse my ignorance on this matter as i dont have a clue ! Maybe a courier could deliver it ?.....

It is very unlikely that you are going to get a farmer to sell you small amounts of milk. Even more unlikely (pretty much zero chance) that you are going to get them to deliver it to you.

The vast vast majority of Milk is collected direct in bulk from dairy farms by the likes of Glanbia or Kerry or someone similar. An Artic bulk tanker sweeps in, connects up to a tank, and takes the milk away a few times a week. Farmers would have no way of packaging up 100 litres of milk for transport.

Also, if you want different breeds of dairy cows or different meals used etc, would you be expecting the farmer to separate out a number of cows, give them different meal at different times and isolate their milk.... again... not a hope.

You could get lucky and maybe find some small farmer who might be willing to partner with you, but you'd be very lucky to find this person.

I think your best bet would be to contact the likes of Teagasc. They have facilities in Moorepark etc where they would be able to manage this kind of research. They would always be doing research on different breeds of cows, feeds, pastures etc. You could be able to piggy back on some existing research and take some of the resulting milk.

You might even find, that they may have done something similar previously that them may be able to give you so you are not actually starting from the very start and re-inventing the wheel.

But, you would want to know what you are talking about before approaching them. You would need a fairly solid plan and probably the backing of another State organisation like EI for them to take you seriously.

petethedrummer

grahamor wrote: »

I will begin with thinking out the products i wish to create.

Ah here. Just perfect 1 cheese/yoghurt in your kitchen with locally sourced milked (pick it up yourself) and sell it a local market. If people come beating down your door then may be look at setting something up.

It sounds like you want to take a range of dairy products (which are already excellent in this country) to new heights, so perhaps tone it down and get a name for yourself by making 1 product excellently.

grahamor wrote: »

Next up would be the butter and yoghurt production facility.

Buy a butter churn from china. (you can buy anything on alibaba).

Best of luck. I consume mountains of cheese, butter and milk. I would like more unpasterized yoghurts on the market. But I'm the only person I know who feels this way!

_Brian

I don't know much about your circumstances but you'd be better off with two/three goats and hand milk them yourself.

Alternatively make contact with a dairy farmer and have suitable container that you can go collect it yourself, 100l milk will be about 100kgs in weight. Few good food grade buckets would do, 20l would be enough for handling.

antoinolachtnai

I am no expert in it at all, but there are a lot of food safety issues in the dairy game. The unpasteurised milk business is going to be treacherous. You might get away with it when you are selling it yourself close to your own doorstep, but if you sell through a retailer you will be inviting a lot of scrutiny.

But I wouldn't let that put you off right away. I would learn an awful lot about developing a product on a very small scale first, and then see if there is anything to it. And yes, you need to stick to one product. It will take a lot of work to get anywhere with just one thing.

The type of money you are talking about just doesn't sound a lot to establish a significant (or even an insignificant) dairy operation. Equipment is really only the start of it. It's the physical environment (suitable building with suitable finishes, facilities, etc) plus all the controls you need to be able to guarantee safety and consistency that will bring the cost.

I know one of one particular player in Dublin with quite a famous name (that said, it is not a 'craft' type dairy product). They no longer manufacture their own product because the level of control involved is just too onerous for them. They get it made by a dairy in the UK (which specialises in the particular niche) to their ancient and honourable recipe.

A bunch of people have done work in this area before, and it would be wise to learn everything you can from them before you start investing.

grahamor

Thanks for the helpful responses so far.

The plan at this stage is to obtain some fresh raw milk from shops in Dublin (that get it delivered once a week) and do some experiments with it. If the end product works out well I can start thinking about the next steps :-)

antoinolachtnai

It is not something I know very much about, but you need to be really careful. You need to understand where your ingredients come from and how long they have been standing.

I don't know if you understand how skilled the food business is. How would you know if you came up with an excellent product? Do you consider yourself (or someone you are close to) to have a sufficiently refined palate?

Making and serving food can be great fun. But there is a big difference between making something you enjoy for yourself and your immediate community, and producing significant quantities of something that the market will pay a premium for.