Watch: Wicklow farmer talks sheep milk and food production
George Finlay is a third-generation farmer based in Baltinglass, Co. Wicklow who runs Ballyhubbock Farm with his wife, Hannah.
Agriland visited the sheep milk producers to find out how they got into producing a “niche” product.
Finlay explained: “My grandad and my granny would have bought this farm.
"My father then took over, because my father’s dad died when he was very young.
“I’m 37 now, so we are farming here, myself and my wife... we really got going about eight years ago.”
The farm started with “just normal sucklers”, but George and Hannah wanted to do something “a bit different”.
The farmer admits that “sheep milk is completely niche”.
He said: “There’s less than 1,000 milking sheep in Ireland."
For such a niche product, he said "you have to make the demand yourself".
Products and processing
While Ballyhubbock Farm supplies sheep milk to some cheese makers, the farm also makes its own cheese and ice cream.
Finlay said: “We went into this with expectations to build a food processing business.
“That was difficult at the start because we had to contact the Department (of Agriculture, Food and the Marine).
"We had to tell them what we wanted to do. They send out all the paperwork, and then you have to do HACCP (hazard analysis and critical control point) plans, and quality checks and you have to build a processing facility.
“Luckily, we had a premises on the farm that was already processing food."
He noted that his parents had a bakery, "practically all my life".
"I remember making mince pies and making cakes the whole way up along my life, so we had a step up, in that regard," he added.
While an existing food production facility was helpful, Finlay admits that dairy is “more high risk” than a bakery.
He said: “That was an eyeopener, how strict the regulations are.”
‘Start small’
The Finlays’ farm has grown significantly since they started less than a decade ago.
“We started off with 30 ewe lambs and we built the numbers up from 30 to 200 now,” Finlay said.
“With the rise in sheep numbers, we grew our own business as well.”
For other farms hoping looking at diversification, Finlay advised “try to find a product that no one else is doing”.
“People nowadays want special, especially when it’s Irish, they want something special.
“They don’t want the run-of-the-mill stuff anymore.”
He also advised: “Do your research, start small, don’t be in a rush.
“Get your branding and everything correct.”
