Northern Ireland farmer-owned co-operative Dale Farm announced a £70m (€81.5m) investment aimed at expanding cheddar cheese production by 20,000t/year at its Dunmanbridge site outside Cookstown, Co Tyrone.

The investment includes a new high-speed automated cheese slicing line as well as new warehouse space. Work is already underway at the facility, which is expected to be completed in less than a year.

CEO of Dale Farm, Nick Whelan, told the Irish Farmers Journal that while the new facility would lead to an increase in capacity, it was also about asset replacement.

The business is getting out of the milk-drying business, with two older dryers at the Dunmanbridge site due for decommissioning next year.

The expansion means there will be more whey protein concentrate, a byproduct of the manufacturing process, for Dale Farm to sell to its customers.

Fundamentally, switching milk from dryers to cheese production makes sense from a “adding value” perspective. While Northern Ireland milk producers do face environmental restrictions on their output, they are not subject to the nitrates decision.

Whelan said that he expects advances in genetics and feeding management will continue to help productivity at farm level and adding the processing capacity is “prudent”.