Why this Corkman sold his stock to build his farm business

“Prior to that it was like we were running two very distinct businesses and we knew we needed to just focus on one to make it as viable as possible.”

At the same time as the Murphys were looking to get out of goats, one of their neighbours was looking to get into them.

“A neighbour came to us and told us about his plans and we ended up selling our goats to him. We told him we would buy every drop of goat’s milk he could produce and that’s what we did,” says Luke.

“He started milking the goats and we started buying the milk and continued making the cheese here on our farm.”

The Murphys now buy 7,000-9,000L of goat’s milk yet they still don’t have enough to keep up with demand for their cheese.

“We buy raw milk from four different farms and we have to carry out a number of tests on it when we get it. We do an antibiotic test, a pH test and a taste test all in-house and we outsource other microbial and bacterial tests to a laboratory,” says Luke.

“Our biggest challenge is having enough milk, we are always short.

“I could grow the business quite a bit if I had enough farmers to buy goat’s milk from.

​According to Luke, there is a huge opportunity to supply goat’s milk, particularly in Munster.

It doesn’t take a lot to get into goat farming, according to Luke, who says it can be a good diversification project for farmers who have idle land or sheds.

“We had 200 goats on 25ac but we could have had more — they don’t require a huge amount of space. They like to move in herds and to be around other animals so space isn’t such an issue for them.

“They eat a ration which can be got in the co-op and they really like beet pulp.

“Goat farming is a great diversification project for some farmers — if you have a spare bit of land and a spare shed, all you really need is a milking parlour, and they can be picked up second-hand quite easily.”

The Murphys never had any allegiance to a particular type of goat when they were farming, Luke says, because getting your hands on goats in Ireland can be difficult.

“There isn’t really an open market for goats in Ireland — it’s not like you can just rock up to the mart and buy a few goats any day of the week. It can be tough to get them so you can’t be fussy with your breeds.

“We kept a mixture of breeds including Toggenburgs, Saanens — which are probably the most common milking goat — and Anglo Nubians, which are the most distinctive with their big fluffy ears.

“Saanens are known for producing good-quality milk as well as a high yield so they’re a good breed if you want to get into dairying.”

Luke took over the running of Ardsallagh Goat’s Cheese five years ago.

“I was working in IT in England and my work offered me the opportunity to take a sabbatical for a year,” he says. “My parents had been telling me about how busy it was here and how they were struggling to get things done because there was so much work but not so many hands.

“So I packed up and moved over to Ireland for a year. When the year was up I was faced with the decision to either go back to my old job in England or move here full-time, so I stayed because I was happy here.”

The Murphys mainly sell their fresh cheese to the retail industry, through Sysco and La Rousse.

They also sell to selected Tesco, Dunnes Stores, Supervalu and M&S stores throughout the country.

“We’ve never been very marketing-focused but the business has grown kind of organically over the years,” says Luke. “We’ve always been of the mindset, ‘let’s give it a shot and see if it works’, and thankfully it has.”

Ardsallagh Cheese is a family affair, with Luke’s sisters Louise and Siobhan also working in the business. They also hired a cheesemaker “to add to the cheese-making expertise”.

“Mum self-taught herself how to make cheese and she then handed down her knowledge to us,” Luke says.​

Ardsallagh’s goat’s cheese is unusual, says Luke, because it’s all hand-made.

“Ours is a hand-made artisan cheese so we aim for the high-end market. It’s a very creamy cheese so we need to handle it delicately when making it — that’s the only way we can get the creamy luxurious texture.

“It’s a more labour-intensive method, though, so it requires a higher price.

“There’s not too many cheese makers in the country who still manually scoop the cheese from the vat by hand.

“We also make a small amount of hard goat’s cheese, which is sold in a block, as well as a Greek-style cheese. You can make different types of cheese by adding different cultures and rennet so we make a few experimental cheeses which we sell at farmers’ markets.

“We specialise in fresh cheese which doesn’t require maturing. It saves on time and labour and it means the cheese is usually out for delivery 24 hours after it’s made.”

The Murphys follow a traditional recipe that would have been used in Irish households in years gone by, says Luke, and they don’t add any preservatives or flavourings.

“It’s always been very simplistic here and we’ve never over-mechanised the business.

“We take the cold milk from our storage tank and put it into the pasteuriser which raises the temperature to 72˚C and holds it there for 15 seconds to kill any bacteria, before cooling it down to 36˚C, which is the right temperature for making cheese.

“After that, the milk goes into the cheese vat and the cultures and rennet are added.”

The rennet coagulates the milk, turning it into curds and whey and giving it the required thickness, says Luke. The cultures, which are acid-producing bacteria, give it the flavour.

“The cheese is then left in the vat for 24 hours and then we simply scoop it by hand from the vat to the cheese moulds where it’s left overnight before being turned the next day and salted and packed the day after that.”

Q&A: ‘When you start out, go bigger than you think you will need – then you always have room to expand’

What level of start-up costs was incurred in setting up the business?

It was quite gradual for my parents. Their biggest cost was the parlour, which can now be picked up easily enough, second-hand.

If you already have a bit of land all you really need is the parlour.

Where can you go to get financing for a farm diversification project like this?

There is financing readily available from the banks for starting up on-farm businesses like cheesemaking or for buying equipment like parlours.

UCC runs a great cheesemaking course and Teagasc Moorepark are an excellent help for someone who wants to start up their own cheese business. They can help you to develop recipes and learn how to make cheese.

Is grant aid available for this type of business?

Yes. We got our pasteuriser partially funded by the Local Enterprise Office.

Are you required to register with any particular bodies?

We are registered with the Department of Agriculture as cheesemakers and we are subject to inspection. Food safety has never been an issue for us so we have yearly inspections.

You are required by law to have a registration number through the Department to sell cheese and each of your products must have that number printed on them.

It’s imperative to register with the Department if you are planning on creating a food business on your farm. They will have specific criteria you need to meet and they will help you along your way in starting your business and going the building work if needed, they’ll show you what you need to do.

You don’t need to register with the HSE as a cheesemaker unless you have a farm shop and are selling it from there.

If you could go back in time is there anything you would do differently?

The problem with growing the way we have grown is that you don’t know how much space you’re going to need.

I’d say to anyone thinking of doing something similar to us — go bigger than you think you’ll need, because then you always have room to expand.